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Book 


BEQUEST OF 

ALBERT ADSIT CLEMONS 
(Not available for exchange) 

































> 







THE GRINGOS 















































« Gringos are savages and worse than savages.” 
Frontispiece. See Page 268. 




THE GRINGOS 

A STORY OF THE OLD CALIFORNIA 
DAYS IN 1849 


BY 

B. M. BOWER 

AUTHOR OF 

CHIP OF THE FLYING U, GOOD INDIAN, 
THE UPHILL CLIMB. ETC. 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

ANTON OTTO FISCHER 




NEW YORK 

GROSSET & DUNLAP 

PUBLISHERS 


-?Z,3 

Grr 

ft 


Copyright, 1913, 

By Little, Brown, and Company. 

AU rights reserved 

Published, October, 1913 
Reprinted, October, 1913 

Bequest 

Albert Adsit Clemons 
Aug. 24, 1938 
(Not -available for exchange) 


IPrfntm 

S. J. Parkhill <fc Co., Boston, U.8.A. 


AUTHOR’S NOTE 


I wish to make public acknowledgment of 
the assistance I have received from George 
W. Lee, a “ Eorty-niner ” who has furnished 
me with data, material, and color which have 
been invaluable in the writing of this story. 







« 



» 











Contents 


Chapteb 

I 

The Beginning of It 


Page 

1 

II 

The Vigilantes .... 


12 

III 

The Thing They Called Justice 


30 

IV 

What Happened at the Oak . 


51 

V 

Hospitality 


67 

VI 

The Valley 


81 

VII 

The Lord of the Valley 


93 

VIII 

Don Andres Wants a Majordomo 


106 

IX 

Jerry Simpson, Squatter 


1 24 * 

X 

The Finest Little Woman in 

World 

THE 

13 4. 

XI 

An III Wind 


144 

XII 

Potential Moods .... 


159 

XIII 

Bill Wilson Goes Visiting . 


168 

XIV 

Rodeo Time 


187 

XV 

When Camp-Fires Blink 


199 

XVI 

“ For Weapons I Choose Riatas ” 


212 

XVII 

A Fiesta We Shall Have 


221 


vi 

CONTENTS 



Chapteb 



Page 

XVIII 

What Is Love Worth? 

... 

[•’ 241 

XIX 

Anticipation . 

w 

l, 252 

XX 

Lost ! Two Hasty Tempers . 

... 

259 

XXI 

Fiesta Day 

w 

.. 271 

XXII 

The Battle of Beasts . 

... 

i.. 290 

XXIII 

The Duel of Riatas . t .> 

l»J 

... 303 

XXIV 

For Loye and a Medal 

[•! 

. 315 

XXV 

Adios . . . w 

!•] 

. 335 


List of Illustrations 


“ Gringos are savages and worse than 

savages 99 Frontispiece 

He twisted in the saddle and sent leaden 
answer to the spiteful barking of the 
guns Page 61 

Mrs. Jerry took the senorita’s hand and 

smiled up at her “ 139 

“An accident it must appear to those who 

watch ” “247 














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i 


•• 






* 




m 










































The Gringos 

CHAPTEK I 

THE BEGINNING OF IT 

I E you would glimpse the savage which normally 
lies asleep, thank God, in most of us, you have 
only to do this thing of which I shall tell you, and 
from some safe sanctuary where leaden couriers may 
not bear prematurely the tidings of man’s debasement, 
watch the world below. You may see civilization 
swing back with a snap to savagery and worse — be- 
cause savagery enlightened by the civilization of cen- 
turies is a deadly thing to let loose among men. Our 
savage forebears were but superior animals groping 
laboriously after economic security and a social con- 
dition that would yield most prolifically the fruit of 
all the world’s desire, happiness; to-day, when we 
swing back to something akin to savagery, we do it 
for lust of gain, like our forebears, but we do it wit- 
tingly. So, if you would look upon the unlovely spec- 
tacle of civilized men turned savage, and see them 


2 THE GRINGOS 

toil painfully back to lawful living, you have but to 
do this : 

Seek a spot remote from the great centers of our 
vaunted civilization, where Nature, in a wanton gold- 
revel of her own, has sprinkled her river beds with 
the shining dust, hidden it away under ledges, buried 
it in deep canyons in playful miserliness and salved 
with its potent glow the time-scars upon the cheeks of 
her gaunt mountains. You have but to find a tiny 
bit of Nature’s gold, fling it in the face of civilization 
and raise the hunting cry. Then, from that safe sanc- 
tuary which you have chosen, you may look your fill 
upon the awakening of the primitive in man; see him 
throw off civilization as a sleeper flings aside the cloak 
that has covered him; watch the savages fight, whom 
your gold has conjured. 

They will come, those savages ; straight as the arrow 
flies they will come, though mountains and deserts 
and hurrying rivers bar their way. And the plodding, 
law-abiding citizens who kiss their wives and hold 
close their babies and fling hasty, comforting words 
over their shoulders to tottering old mothers when they 
go to answer the hunting call — they will be your 
savages when the gold lust grips them. And the towns 
they build of their greed will be but the nucleus of all 
the crime let loose upon the land. There will be men 


THE BEGINNING OF IT 3 


among your savages; men in whom the finer stuff 
outweighs the grossness and the greed. But to save 
their lives and that thing they prize more than life 
or gold, and call by the name of honor or friendship 
or justice — that thing which is the essence of all the 
fineness in their natures — to save that and their lives 
they also must fight, like savages who would destroy 
them. 

There was a little, straggling hamlet born of the 
Mission which the padres founded among the sand 
hills beside a great, uneasy stretch of water which a 
dreamer might liken to a naughty child that had 
run away from its mother, the ocean, through a little 
gateway which the land left open by chance; and was 
hiding there among the hills, listening to the calling of 
the surf voice by night, out there beyond the gate, and 
lying sullen and still when mother ocean sent the fog 
and the tides a-seeking; a truant child that played 
by itself and danced little wave dances which it had 
learned of its mother ages agone, and laughed up at the 
hills that smiled down upon it. 

The padres thought mostly of the savages who lived 
upon the land, and strove earnestly to teach them the 
lessons which, sandal-shod, with crucifix to point the 
way, they had marched up from the south to set before 


4 


THE GRINGOS 


these children of the wild. Also came ships, searching 
for that truant ocean-child, the bay, of which men had 
heard; and so the hamlet was born of civilization. 

Came afterwards noblemen from Spain, with parch- 
ments upon which the king himself had set his seal. 
Mile upon mile, they chose the land that pleased them 
best; and by virtue of the king’s word called it their 
own. They drove cattle up from the south to feed 
upon the hills and in the valleys. They brought beau- 
tiful wives and set them a-queening it over spacious 
homes which they built of clay and native wood and 
furnished with the luxuries they brought with them 
in the ships. They reared lovely daughters and strong, 
hot-blooded sons; and they grew rich in cattle and in 
contentment, in this paradise which Nature had set 
apart for her own playground and which the zeal of 
the padres had found and claimed in the name of God 
and their king. 

The hamlet beside the bay was small, but it received 
the ships and the goods they brought and bartered for 
tallow and hides; and although the place numbered 
less than a thousand souls, it was large enough to please 
the dons who dwelt like the patriarchs of old in the 
valleys. 

Then Chance, that sardonic jester who loves best to 
thwart the dearest desires of men and warp the destiny 


THE BEGINNING OF IT 5 

of nations, became piqued at the peace and the plenty 
in the land which lay around the bay. Chance, know- 
ing well how best and quickest to let savagery loose 
upon the land, plucked a handful of gold from the 
f breast of Nature, held it aloft that all the world might 
be made mad by the gleam of it, and raised the hunt- 
ing call. 

Chance also it was that took the trails of two ad- 
venturous young fellows whose ears had caught her cry 
of “ Good hunting ” and set their faces westward from 
the plains of Texas ; but here her jest was kindly. The 
young fellows took the trail together and were con- 
tent. Together they heard the hunting call and went 
seeking the gold that was luring thousands across the 
deserts; together they dug for it, found it, shared it 
when all was done. Together they heeded the warning 
of falling leaf and chilling night winds, and with buck- 
skin bags comfortably heavy went down the mountain 
trail to San Francisco, that ugly, moiling center of the 
savagery, to idle through the winter. 

Here, because of certain traits which led each man 
to seek the thing that pleased him best, the trail forked 
for a time. One was caught in the turgid whirlpool 
which was the sporting element of the town, and would 
not leave it. Him the games and the women and the 
fighting drew irresistibly. The other sickened of the 


iTHE GRINGOS 


place, and one day when all the grassy hillsides shone 
with the golden glow of poppies to prove that spring 
was near, almost emptied a bag of gold because he had 
seen and fancied a white horse which a drunken Span- 
iard from the San Joaquin was riding up and down the 
narrow strip of sand which was a street, showing off 
alike his horsemanship and his drunkenness. The 
horse he bought, and the outfit, from the silver-trimmed 
saddle and bridle to the rawhide riata hanging coiled 
upon one side of the narrow fork and the ivory-handled 
Colt’s revolver tucked snugly in its holster upon the 
other side. Pleased as a child over a Christmas stock- 
ing, he straightway mounted the beautiful beast and 
galloped away to the south, still led by Chance, the 
jester. 

He returned in a week, enamored alike of his horse 
and of the ranch he had discovered. He was going 
back, he said. There were cattle by the thousands — 
and he was a cattleman, from the top of his white 
sombrero to the tips of his calfskin boots, for all he had 
bent his back laboriously all summer over a hole in the 
ground, and had idled in town since Thanksgiving. 
He was a cowboy (vaquero was the name they used 
in those pleasant valleys) and so was his friend. And 
he had found a cowboy’s paradise, and a welcome 
which a king could not cavil at. Would Jack stake 


THE BEGINNING OF IT 7 

himself to a horse and outfit, and come to Palo Alto 
till the snow was well out of the mountains and they 
could go back to their mine ? 

Jack blew three small smoke-rings with nice pre- 
cision, watched them float and fade while he thought of 
a certain girl who had lately smiled upon him — and 
in return had got smile for smile — and said he guessed, 
he ’d stick to town life for a while. 

“ Old Don Andres Picardo ’s a prince,” argued Dade, 
“ and he ’s got a rancho that ’s a paradise on earth, 
likes us gringos — which is more than most of ’em 
do — and said his house and all he ’s got is half mine, 
and nothing but the honor ’s all his. You know the 
Spaniards; seems like Texas, down there. I told him 
I had a partner, and he said he ’d be doubly honored 
if it pleased my partner to sleep under his poor roof — 
red tiles, by the way, and not so poor ! — and sit at 
his table. One of the 1 fine old families/ they are, 
Jack. I came back after you and my traps.” 

“ That fellow you bought the white caballo from got 
shot that same night,” J ack observed irrelevantly. 
“ He was weeping all over me part of the evening, 
because he ’d sold the horse and you had pulled out 
so he could n’t buy him back. Then he came into 
Billy Wilson’s place and sat into a game at the table 
next to mine ; and some kind of a quarrel started. He ’d 


8 


fTHE GRINGOS 


overlooked that gun on the saddle, it seems, and so he 
only had a knife. He whipped it out, first pass, but a 
bullet got him in the heart. The fellow that did it — ” 
Jack blew two more rings and watched them ab- 
sently — “ the Committee rounded him up and took him 
out to the oak, next morning. Trial took about fifteen 
minutes, all told. They had him hung, in their own 
minds, before the greaser quit kicking. I know the 
man shot in self-defense; I saw the Spaniard pull his 
knife and start for him with blood in his eye. But 
some of the Committee had it in for Sandy, and so — 
it was adios for him, poor devil. They murdered him 
in cold blood. I told them so, too. I told them — ” 

“ Yes, I have n’t the slightest doubt of that ! ” 
Dade flung away a half-smoked cigarette and agitatedly 
began to roll another one. “ That ’s one reason why 
I want you to come down to Palo Alto, Jack. You 
know how things are going here, lately; and Perkins 
hates you since you took the part of that peon he wajs 
beating up, — and, by the way, I saw that same Injun 
at Don Andres’ rancho. Now that Perkins is Captain, 
you ’ll get into trouble if you hang around this burg 
without some one to hold you down. This ain’t any 
place for a man that ’s got your temper and tongue. 
Say, I heard of a horse — ” 

“ No, you don’t! You can’t lead me out like that, 


THE BEGINNING OF IT 9 


old boy. I’m all right; Bill Wilson and I are pretty 
good friends ; and Bill ’s almost as high a card as the 
Committee, if it ever came to a show-down. But it 
won’t. I ’m not a fool ; I did n’t quarrel with them, 
honest. They had me up for a witness, and I told the 
truth — which did n’t happen to jibe with the verdict 
they meant to give. The Captain as good as said so, 
and I just pleasantly and kindly told him that in my 
opinion Sandy was a better man than any one of ’em. 
That ’s all there was to it. The Captain excused me 
from the witness chair, and I walked out of the tent. 
And we ’re friendly enough when we meet ; so you 
need n’t worry about me.” 

“ Better come, anyway,” urged Dade, though he was 
not hopeful of winning his way. 

Jack shook his head. “ No, I don’t want anything 
of country life just yet. I had all the splendid solitude 
my system needs, this last summer. You like it; 
you ’re a kind of a lone rider, anyway. You never 
did mix well. You go back and honor Don Andres 
with your presence — and he is honored, if the old 
devil only knew it ! Maybe, later on — So you like 
your new horse, huh ? What you going to call him ? ” 

Dade grinned a little. “ Remember that picture in 
Shakespeare, of ‘ White Surry ’ ? Or it was in Shake- 
speare till you tore it out to start a fire, that wet night ; 


10 THE GRINGOS 

remember? The arch in his neck, and all? I hadn’t 
gone a mile on him till I was calling him Surry; and 
say, Jack, he ’s a wonder! Come out and take a look 
at him. Can’t be more than four years old, and gentle 
as a kitten. That poor devil knew how to train a 
horse, even if he did n’t have any sense about whisky. 
I ’ll bet money could n’t have touched him if the man 
had been sober.” 

He stopped in the doorway and looked up and down 
the street with open disgust. “ Come on down to 
Picardo’s, Jack; what the deuce is there here to hold 
you? How a man that knows horses and the range, 
can stand for this — ” he waved a gloved hand at the 
squalid street — “ is something I can’t understand. 
To me, it ’s like hell with the lid off. What ’s holding 
you, anyway ? Another senorita ? ” 

“ I ’m making more money here lately than I did 
in the mine,” Jack evaded smoothly. “ I won a lot 
last night. Whee-ee! Say, you played in some luck 
yourself, old man, when you bought that outfit. That 
saddle and bridle’s worth all you paid for the whole 
thing. White Surry, eh ? He has got a neck — and, 
Lord, look at those legs ! ” 

“ Climb on and try him out once ! ” invited Dade 
guilefully. If he could stir the horseman’s blood in 


THE BEGINNING OF IT 11 

Jack’s veins, he thought he might get him away from 
town. 

“ Have n’t time right now, Dade. I promised to 
meet a friend — ” 

Dade shrugged his shoulders and painstakingly 
smoothed the hair tassel which dangled from the brow- 
band. The Spaniard had owned a fine eye for effect 
when he chose jet black trappings for Surry, who was 
white to his shining hoofs. 

“ All right ; I ’ll put him in somewhere till after 
dinner. Then I ’m going to pull out again. I can’t 
stand this hell-pot of a town — not after the Picardo 
hacienda.” 

“ I wonder,” grinned Jack slyly, “ if there is n’t a 
senorita at Palo Alto ? ” 

He got no answer of any sort. Dade was combing 
with his fingers the crinkled mane which fell to the 
very chest of his new horse, and if he heard he made 
no betraying sign. 


CHAPTER II 


THE VIGILANTES 

B ILL WILSON came to the door of his saloon and 
stood with his hands on his hips, looking out 
upon the heterogeneous assembly of virile manhood 
that formed the hulk of San Francisco’s population a 
year or two after the first gold cry had been raised. 
Above his head flapped the great cloth sign tacked quite 
across the rough building, heralding to all who could 
read the words that this was BILL WILSON’S 
PLACE. A flaunting bit of information it was, and 
quite superfluous; since practically every man in San 
Francisco drifted towards it, soon or late, as the place 
where the most whisky was drunk and the most gold 
lost and won, with the most beautiful women to smile 
or frown upon the lucky, in all the town. 

The trade wind knew that Bill Wilson’s place needed 
no sign save its presence there, and was loosening a 
corner in the hope of carrying it quite away as a trophy. 
Bill glanced up, promised the resisting cloth an extra 
nail or two, and let his thoughts and his eyes wander 
again to the sweeping tide of humanity that flowed up 


THE VIGILANTES 


13 


and down the straggling street of sand and threatened 
to engulf the store which men spoke of simply as 
“ Smith’s.” 

A shipload of supplies had lately been carted there, 
and miners were feverishly buying bacon, beans, “ self- 
rising ” flour, matches, tea — everything within the 
limits of their gold dust and their carrying capacity — 
which they needed for hurried trips to the hills where 
was hidden the gold they dreamed of night and day. 

To Bill that tide meant so much business; and he 
was not the man to grudge his friend Smith a share of 
it. When the fog crept in through the Golden Gate — 
a gate which might never be closed against it — the 
tide of business would set towards his place, just as 
surely as the ocean tide would clamor at the rocky 
wall out there to the west. In the meantime, he was 
not loath to spend a quiet hour or two with an empty 
gaming hall at his back. 

His eyes went incuriously over the familiar crowd 
to the little forest of flag-foliaged masts that told where 
lay the ships in the bay below the town. Bill could 
not name the nationality of them all; for the hunting 
call had reached to the far corners of the earth, and 
strange flags came fluttering across strange seas, with 
pirate-faced adventurers on the decks below, chattering 
in strange tongues of California gold. Bill could not 


14 


THE GRINGOS 

name all the flags, but he could name two of the bonds 
that bind all nations into one common humanity. He 
could produce one of them, and he was each night 
gaining more of the other; for, be they white men or 
brown, spoke they his language or one he had never 
heard until they passed through the Golden Gate, they 
would give good gold for very bad whisky. 

Even the Digger Indians, squatting in the sun be- 
side his door and gazing stolidly at the town and the 
bay beyond, would sell their souls — for which the 
gray-gowned padres prayed ineffectively in the chapel 
at Dolores — their wives or their other, dearer posses- 
sions for a very little bottle of the stuff that was fast 
undoing the civilizing work of the Mission. The 
padres had come long before the hunting cry was 
raised, and they had labored earnestly; but their 
prayers and their preaching were like reeds beneath 
the tread of elephants, when gold came down from the 
mountains, and whisky came in through the Golden 
Gate. 

Jack Allen, coming lazily down through the long, 
deserted room, edged past Bill in the doorway. 

“ Hello, ” Bill greeted with a carefully casual man- 
ner, as if he had been waiting for the meeting, but 
did not want J ack to suspect the fact. “ Up for all 
day \ Where you headed for \ ” 


THE VIGILANTES 


15 


u Breakfast — or dinner, whichever you want to call 
it. Then I ? m going to take a walk and get the kinks 
out of my legs. Say, old man, I ? m going to knock a 
board off the foot of that bunk, to-night, or else sleep 
on the floor. Was wood scarce, Bill, when you built 
that bed ? ” 

“ Carpenter was a little feller,” chuckled Bill, “ and 
I guess he measured it by himself. Charged a full 
length price, though, I remember ! I meant to tell you 
when you hired that room, Jack, that you better take 
the axe to bed with you. Sure, knock a board off ; two 
boards, if you like. Take all the boards off ! ” urged 
Bill, in a burst of generosity. “ You might better be 
making that bunk over, m’ son, than trying to take the 
whole blamed town apart and put it together again, 
like you was doing last night.” In this way Bill tact- 
fully swung to the subject that lay heavy on his mind. 

Jack borrowed a match, cupped his fingers around 
his lips that wanted to part in a smile, and lighted his 
before-breakfast cigarette — though the sun hung al- 
most straight overhead. 

“ So that ’s it,” he observed, when the smoke took 
on the sweet aroma of a very mild tobacco. u I saw 
by the back of your neck that you had something on 
your mind. What 9 s the matter, Bill ? Don’t you think 
the old town needs taking apart ? ” 


16 


THE GRINGOS 


“ Oh, it needs it, all right. But it ’s too big a job 
for one man to tackle. You leave that to Daddy Time ; 
he ’s the only reformer — ” 

“ Say, Bill, I never attempted to reform anybody 
or anything in my life; I’d hate to begin with a job 
the size of this.” He waved his cigarette toward the 
shifting crowd. “ But I do think — ” 

“ And right there ’s where you make a big mistake. 
You don’t want to think! Or if you do, don’t think 
out loud; not where such men as Swift and Rawhide 
and the Captain can hear you. That ’s what I mean, 
Jack.” 

Jack eyed him with a smile in his eyes. “ Some 
men might think you were afraid of that bunch,” he 
observed with characteristic bluntness. “ I know you 
are n’t, and so I don’t see why you want me to be. 
You know, and I know, that the Vigilance Committee 
has turned rotten to the core ; every decent man in San 
Francisco knows it. You know that Sandy killed that 
Spaniard in self-defense — or if you didn’t see the 
fracas, I tell you now that he did; I saw the whole 
thing. You know, at any rate, that the Vigilantes 
took him out and hung him because they wanted to 
get rid of him, and that came the nearest to an excuse 
they could find. You know — ” 

“ Oh, I know ! ” Bill’s voice was sardonic. “ I 


THE VIGILANTES 17 

know they ’ll be going around with a spy-glass looking 
for an excuse to hang you, too, if you don’t quit talk- 
ing about ’em.” 

Jack smiled and so let a thin ribbon of smoke float 
up and away from his lips. 

Bill saw the smile and flushed a little; but he was 
not to be laughed down, once he was fairly started. 
He laid two well-kept fingers upon the other’s arm and 
spoke soberly, refusing to treat the thing as lightly as 
the other was minded to do. 

“ Oh, you ’ll laugh, but it ’s a fact, and you know 
it Why, ain’t Sandy’s case proof enough that I ’m 
right? I heard you telling a crowd in there last 
night — ” Bill tilted his head backward towards the 
room behind them — “ that this law-and-order talk is 
all a farce. What if it is? It don’t do any good for 
you to bawl it out in public and get the worst men in 
the Committee down on you, does it ? 

“ What you ’d better do, Jack, is go on down to Palo 
Alto where your pardner is. He ’s got some sense. I 
wouldn’t stay in the darned town overnight, the way 
they ’re running things now, if it was n’t for my busi- 
ness. Ever since they made Tom Perkins captain 
there ’s been hell to pay all round. I can hold my 
own ; I’m up where they don’t dare tackle me ; but you 
take a fool’s advice and pull out before the Captain 


18 


THE GRINGOS 


gets his eagle eye on you. Talk like you was slinging 
around last night is about as good a trouble-raiser as if 
you emptied both them guns of yours into that crowd 
out there.” 

“ You ’re asking me to run before there ’s anything 
to run away from.” Jack’s lips began to show the line 
of stubbornness. “ I have n’t quarreled with the 
Captain, except that little fuss a month ago, when he 
was hammering that peon because he could n’t talk 
English; I’m not going to. And if they did try any 
funny work with me, old-timer, why — as you say, 
these guns — ” 

“ Oh, all right, m’ son ! Have it your own way,” Bill 
retorted grimly. “ I know you ’ve got a brace of guns ; 
and I know you can plant a bullet where you want it 
to land, about as quick as the next one. I haven’t a 
doubt but what you’re equal to the Vigilantes, with 
both hands tied ! Of course,” he went on with heavy 
irony, “ I have known of some mighty able men swing- 
ing from the oak, lately. There’ll likely be more, 
before the town wakes up and weeds out some of the 
cutthroat element that ’s running things now to suit 
themselves.” 

Jack looked at him quickly, struck by something in 
Bill’s voice that betrayed his real concern. “ Don’t 
take it to heart, Bill,” he said, dropping his bantering 


THE VIGILANTES 


19 


and his stubbornness together. “ I won’t air my views 
quite so publicly, after this. I know I was a fool to 
talk quite as straight as I did last night ; but some one 
else brought up the subject of Sandy; and Swift called 
him a name Sandy ’d have smashed him in the face 
for, if he ’d been alive and heard it I always liked 
the fellow, and it made me hot to see them hustle 
him out of town and hang him like they ’d shoot a dog 
that had bitten some one, when I knew he didn’t de- 
serve it. You or I would have shot, just as quick as 
he did, if a drunken Spaniard made for us with a 
knife. So would the Captain, or Swift, or any of the 
others. 

“ I know — I ’ve got a nasty tongue when some- 
thing riles me, and I lash out without stopping to 
think. Dade has given me the devil for that, more 
times than I can count. He went after me about this 
very thing, too, the other day. I ’ll try and forget 
about Sandy; it doesn’t make pleasant remembering, 
anyway. And I ’ll promise to count a hundred before 
I mention the Committee above a whisper, after this — 
nine hundred and ninety-nine before I take the name of 
Swift or the Captain in vain I ” He smiled full at 
Bill — a smile to make men love him for the big- 
hearted boy he was. 

But Bill did not grin back. “ Well, it won’t hurt 


20 


THE GRINGOS 


you any; they’re bad men to fuss with, both of ’em,” 
he warned somberly. 

“ Come on out and climb a hill or two with me,” 
Jack urged. “ You ’ve got worse kinks in your system, 
to-day, than I ’ve got in my legs. You won’t ? Well, 
better go hack and take another sleep, then ; it may put 
you in a more optimistic mood.” He went off up the 
street towards the hills to the south, turning in at the 
door of a tented eating-place for his belated breakfast. 

“ Optimistic hell ! ” grunted Bill. “ You can’t tell 
a man anything he don’t think he knows better than you 
do, till he ’s past thirty. I was a fool to try, I reckon.” 

He glowered at the vanishing figure, noting anew how 
tall and straight Jack was in his close-fitting buckskin 
jacket, with the crimson sash knotted about his middle 
in the Spanish style, his trousers tucked into his boots 
like the miners, and to crown all, a white sombrero such 
as the vaqueros wore. Handsome and headstrong he 
was; and Bill shook his head over the combination 
which made for trouble in that land where the primal 
instincts lay all on the surface ; where men looked ! 
askance at the one who drew oftenest the glances of 
the women and who walked erect and unafraid in the 
midst of the lawlessness. Jack Allen was fast making 
enemies, and no one knew it better than Bill. 

When the young fellow disappeared, Bill looked 


THE VIGILANTES 


21 


again at the shifting crowd upon which his eyes were 
wont to rest with the speculative gaze of a farmer who 
leans upon the fence that bounds his land, and regards 
his wheat-fields ripening for the sickle. He liked Jack, 
and the soul of him was bitter with the bitterness that 
is the portion of maturity, when it must stand by and 
see youth learn by the pangs of experience that fire 
wfill bum most agonizingly if you hold your hand in 
the blaze. 

One of his night bartenders came up; and Bill, dis- 
missing Jack from his mind, with a grunt of disgust, 
went in to talk over certain changes which he meant 
to make in the bar as soon as he could get material 
and carpenter together upon the spot. 

He was still fussing with certain of the petty details 
that make or mar the smooth running of an establish- 
ment like his, when his ear, trained to detect the first 
note of discord in the babble which filled his big room 
by night, caught an ominous note in the hum of the 
street crowd outside. He lifted his head from examin- 
ing a rickety table-leg. 

“ Go see what ? s happened, Jim,” he suggested to the 
man, who had just come up with a hammer and some 
nails; and went back to dreaming of the time when 
his place should be a palace, and he would not have to 
nail the legs on his tables every few days because of 


22 THE GRINGOS 

the ebullitions of excitement in his customers. He 
had strengthened the legs, and was testing them by 
rocking the table slightly with a broad palm upon it, 
when Jim came back. 

“ Some shooting scrape, back on the flat,” Jim an- 
nounced indifferently. “ Some say it was a hold-up. 
Two or three of the Committee have gone out to in- 
vestigate.” 

“ Yeah — I ’ll bet the Committee went out ! ” 
snorted Bill. “ They ’ll be lynching the Diggers’ dogs 
for fighting, when the supply of humans runs out. 
They’ve just about played that buckskin out, packing 
men out to the oak to hang ’em lately,” he went on 
glumly, sliding the rejuvenated table into its place in 
the long row that filled that side of the room. “ I 
never saw such an enthusiastic bunch as they’re get- 
ting to be ! ” 

“ That ’s right,” Jim agreed perfunctorily, as a man 
is wont to agree with his employer. “ Somebody ’ll 
hang, all right.” 

“ There ’s plenty that need it — if the Committee 
only had sense enough to pick ’em out and leave the 
rest alone,” growled Bill, going from table to table, 
tipping and testing for other legs that wobbled. 

Jim sensed the rebuff in his tone and went back to 
the door, around which a knot of men engaged in 


THE VIGILANTES 


23 


desultory conjectures while they waited expectantly. 
A large tent that Perkins had found convenient as a 
temporary jail for those unfortunates upon whom his 
heavy hand fell swiftly, stood next to Bilks place ; and 
it spoke eloquently of the manner in which the Com- 
mittee then worked, that men gathered there instinc- 
tively at the first sign of trouble. Por when the Com- 
mittee went out after culprits, it did not return empty- 
handed, as the populace knew well. Zealous custodians 
of the law were they, as Bill had said; and though 
they might have exchanged much of their zeal for a 
little of Bill’s sense of justice (to the betterment of the 
town), few of the waiting crowd had the temerity to 
say so. 

Up the street, necks (whose owners had not thought 
it worth while to wade through the sand to the scene 
of the shooting) were being craned towards the flat be- 
hind the town, where the Captain and a few of his 
men had hurried at the first shot. 

“ They ’re comm’,” Jim announced, thrusting his 
head into the gambling hall and raising his voice above 
the sound of the boss’s nail-driving. 

“ Well — what of it ? ” snapped Bill. “ Why don’t 
you yell at me that the sun is going to set in the west 
to-night ? ” Bill drove the head of a four-cornered, iron 
nail clean out of sight in a table top. And Jim pru- 


24 


THE GRINGOS 


dentlj withdrew his head and turned his face and his 
attention towards the little procession that was just 
coming into sight at the end of the rambling street, 
with the crowd closing in behind it as the water comes 
surging together behind an ocean liner. 

Jim worshiped his boss, but he knew better than 
to argue with him when Bill happened to be in that 
particular mood, which, to tell the truth, was not often. 
But in five minutes or less he had forgotten the snub. 
His head popped in again. 

“ Bill!” 

There may be much meaning in a tone, though it 
utters but one unmeaning word. Bill dropped a hand- 
ful of nails upon a table and came striding down the 
long room to the door; pushed Jim unceremoniously 
aside and stood upon the step. He was just in time to 
look into the rageful, blue eyes of Jack Allen, walking 
with a very straight back and a contemptuous smile on 
his lips, between the Captain and one of his trusted 
lieutenants. 

Bill’s fingers clenched suggestively upon the handle 
of the hammer. His jaw slackened and then pushed 
itself forward to a fighting angle while he stared, and 
he named in his amazement that place which the padres 
had taught the Indians to fear. 

The Captain heard him and grinned sourly as he 


25 


THE VIGILANTES 

passed on. J ack heard him, and his smile grew twisted 
at the tone in which the word was uttered; but he 
still smiled, which was more than many a man would 
have done in his place. 

Bill stood while the rest of that grim procession 
passed his place. There was another, a young fellow 
who looked ready to cry, walking unsteadily behind 
Jack, both his arms gripped by others of the Vigilance 
Committee. There were two crude stretchers, borne 
by stolid-faced miners in red flannel shirts and clay- 
stained boots. On the first a dead man lay grinning 
up at the sun, his teeth just showing under his bushy 
mustache, a trickle of red running down from his 
temple. On the next a man groaned and mumbled 
blasphemy between his groanings. 

Bill took it all in, a single glance for each, — a glance 
trained by gambling to see a great deal between the 
flicker of his lashes. He did not seem to look once at 
the Captain, yet he knew that Jack’s ivory-handled 
pistols hung at the Captain’s rocking hips as he went 
striding past; and he knew that malice lurked under 
the grizzled hair which hid the Captain’s cruel lips; 
and that satisfaction glowed in the hard, sidelong glance 
he gave his prisoner. 

He stood until he saw Jack duck his head under 
the tent flaps of the jail and the white-faced youth 


26 


THE GRINGOS 


follow shrinking after. He stood while the armed 
guards took up their stations on the four sides of the 
tent and began pacing up and down the paths worn 
deep in tragic significance. He saw the wounded man 
carried into Pete’s place across the way, and the dead 
man taken farther down the street. He saw the crowd 
split into uneasy groups which spoke a common tongue, 
that they might exchange unasked opinions upon this, 
the biggest sensation since Sandy left town with his 
ankles tied under the vicious-eyed buckskin whose 
riders rode always toward the west and whose saddle 
was always empty when he came back to his stall at 
the end of the town. Bill saw it all, to the last detail ; 
but after his one explosive oath, he was apparently the 
most indifferent of them all. 

When the Captain ended his curt instructions to the 
guard and came towards him, Bill showed a disposition 
to speak. 

“ Who ’s the kid ? ” he drawled companionably, while 
his fingers itched upon the hammer, and the soul of 
him lusted for sight of the hole it could make in the 
skull of the Captain. “ I don’t recollect seeing him 
around town — and there ain’t many faces I forget, 
either.” 

The Captain shot him a surprised look that was an 
unconscious tribute to Bill’s diplomatic art. But Bill’s 


THE VIGILANTES 27 

level glance would have disarmed a keener man than 
Tom Perkins. 

Perkins stopped. “ Stranger, from what he said — 
though I ’ve got my doubts. Some crony of Allen’s, I 
expect. It was him done the shooting ; the kid did n’t 
have any gun on him. Allen did n’t deny it, either.” 

“ No — he’s just bull-headed enough to tough it 
out,” commented Bill. “ What was the row about — do 
yuh know ? ” 

Perkins stiffened. “ That,” he said with some dig- 
nity, “ will come out at the trial. He killed Kawhide 
outright, and Texas Bill will die, I reckon. The trial 
will show what kinda excuse he thought he had.” 
Having delivered himself thus impartially and with 
malice towards none, Perkins started on. 

“ Oh, say ! You don’t mind if I talk to ’em ? ” 
Bill gritted his teeth at having to put the sentence in 
that favor-seeking tone, but he did it, nevertheless. 

The Captain scowled under his black, slouch hat. 
“ I ’ve give strict orders not to let anybody inside the 
tent till after the trial,” he said shortly. 

“ Oh, that ’s all right. I ’ll talk to ’em through the 
door,” Bill agreed equably. “ Jack owes me some 
money.” 

The Captain muttered unintelligibly and passed on, 
and Bill chose to interpret the mutter as consent. He 


28 


THE GRINGOS 


strolled over to the tent, joked condescendingly with the 
guard who stood before it, and announced that the 
Captain had said he might talk to the prisoners. 

“ I did not,” said the Captain unexpectedly at his 
shoulder. “ I said you could n’t. After the trial, you 
can collect what ’s coming to you, Mr. Wilson. That 
is,” he added hastily, “ in case Allen should be con- 
victed. If he ain’t, you can do as you please.” He 
looked full at the guard. “ Shoot any man that at- 
tempts to enter that tent or talk to the prisoners with- 
out my permission, Shorty,” he directed, and turned 
his back on Bill. 

Bill did not permit one muscle of his face to twitch. 
“ All right,” he drawled, “ I guess I won’t go broke 
if I don’t get it. You mind what your Captain tells 
you, Shorty ! He ’s running this show, and what he 
says goes. You ’ve got a good man over yuh, Shorty. 
A fine man. He ’ll weed out the town till it ’ll look 
like grandpa’s onion bed — if the supply of rope don’t 
give out ! ” Whereupon he strolled carelessly back to 
his place, and went in as if the incident were squeezed 
dry of interest for him. He walked to the far end of 
the big room, sat deliberately down upon a little table, 
and rewarded himself for his forbearance by cursing 
methodically the Captain, the Committee of which he 
was the leader, the men who had witlessly given him 


THE VIGILANTES 


29 


the power he used so ruthlessly as pleased him best, 
and Jack Allen, whose ill-timed criticisms and hot- 
headed freedom of speech had brought upon himself 
the weight of the Committee’s dread hand. 

“ Damn him, I tried to tell him ! ” groaned Bill, his 
face hidden behind his palms. “ They’ll hang him — 
and dam my oldest sister’s cat’s eyes, somebody ’ll sweat 
blood for it, too ! ” (Bill, you will observe, had 
reached the end of real blasphemy and was forced to 
improvise milder expletives as he went along.) “ There 
ought to be enough decent men in this town to — ” 

“ Did you git to see Jack?” ventured Jim, coming 
anxiously up to his boss. 

The tone of him, which was that hushed tone which 
we employ in the presence of the dead, so incensed 
Bill that for answer he threw the hammer viciously in 
his direction. Jim took the hint and retreated hastily. 

“ No, damn ’em, they won’t let me near him,” said 
Bill, ashamed of his violence. “ I knew they ’d get 
him ; but I did n’t think they ’d get him so quick. 
I sent a letter down by an Injun this morning to his 
pardner to come up and get him outa town before he — 
But it’s too late now. That talk he made last night — ” 
a Say, he shot Swift in the arm, too,” said Jim. 
“ Pity he did n’t kill him. They ’re getting a jury to- 
gether already. Say ! Ain’t it hell ? ” 


CHAPTER III 




THE THING THEY CALLED JUSTICE 


J ACK stared meditatively across at the young fel- 
low sitting hunched upon another of the boxes 
that were the seats in this tent-jail, which was also 
the courtroom of the Vigilance Committee, and me- 
chanically counted the slow tears that trickled down 
between the third and fourth fingers of each hand. A 
half-hour spent so would have rasped the nerves of the 
most phlegmatic man in the town, and Jack was not 
phlegmatic; fifteen minutes of watching that silent 
weeping sufficed to bring a muffled explosion. 

“ Ah, for God’s sake, brace up ! ” he gritted. 
“ There ’s some hope for you — if you don’t spoil what 
chance you have got, by crying around like a baby. 
Brace up and be a man, anyway. It won’t hurt any 
worse if you grin about it.” 

The young fellow felt gropingly for a red-figured 
bandanna, found it and wiped his face and his eyes de- 
jectedly. “ I beg your pardon for seeming a coward,” 
he apologized huskily. “ I got to thinking about my 
— m-mother and sisters, and — ” 


THEY CALLED IT JUSTICE 31 

Jack winced. Mother and sisters he had longed for 
all his life. “ Well, you better be thinking how you ’ll 
get out of the scrape you ’re in,” he advised, with a 
little of Bill Wilson’s grimness. “ I ’m afraid I ’m to 
blame, in a way ; and yet, if I had n’t mixed into the 
fight, you ’d be dead by now. Maybe that would have 
been just as well, seeing how things have turned out,” 
he grinned. “ Still — have a smoke ? ” 

“ I never used tobacco in my life,” declined the 
youth somewhat primly. 

“ Ho, I don’t reckon you ever did!” Jack eyed 
him with a certain amount of pitying amusement. “ A 
fellow that will come gold-hunting without a gun to 
his name, would not use tobacco, or swear, or do any- 
thing that a perfect lady could n’t do ! However, you 
put up a good fight with your fists, old man, and that ’s 
something.” 

“ I ’d have been killed, though, if you had n’t shot 
when you did. They were too much for me. I have n’t 
tried to thank you — ” 

“Ho, I shouldn’t think you would,” grinned Jack. 
“ I don’t see yet where I ’ve done you any particular 
favor: from robbers to Vigilance Committee might be 
called an up-to-date version of c Out of the frying-pan 
into the fire.’ ” 

The boy glanced fearfully toward the closed tent- 


32 THE GRINGOS 

flaps. “ Ssh ! ” he whispered. “ The guard can 
hear — ” 

“ Oh, that ’s all right,” returned J ack, urged per- 
haps to a conscious bravado by the very weakness of the 
other. “ It ’s all day with me, anyway. I may as well 
say what I think. 

“ And so — ” He paused to blow one of his favorite 
little smoke rings and watch it float to the dingy ridge- 
pole, where it flickered and faded into a blue haze 
“ — and so, I ’m going to say right out in meeting 
what I think of this town and the Committee they let 
measure out justice. Justice ! ” He laughed sar- 
donically. “ Poor old lady, she could n’t stop within 
forty miles of Perkins’ Committee if she had forty 
bandages over her eyes, and both ears plugged with 
cotton! You wait till their farce of a trial is over. 
You may get off, by a scratch — I hope so. But un- 
less Bill Wilson — ” 

“ Aw, yuh need n’t pin no hopes on Bill Wilson ! ” 
came a heavy, malicious voice through the tent wall. 
“ All hell can’t save yuh, J ack Allen ! You ’ve had a 
ride out to the oak cornin’ to yuh for quite a while, 
and before sundown you ’ll get it.” 

“ Oh ! Is that so, Shorty ? Say, you ’re breaking 
the rules, you old pirate ; you ’re talking to the prisoners 
without permission. As the Captain’s most faithful 


THEY CALLED IT JUSTICE 33 

dog Tray, you ’d better shoot yourself; it’ll save the 
town the trouble of hanging you later on ! ” He smoked 
calmly while Shorty, on guard without, growled a vili- 
fying retort, and the other guards snickered. 

“ Ah, brace up ! ” he advised his quaking companion 
again. “ If my company does n’t damn you beyond all 
hope, you may get out of the scrape. You did n’t have 
a gun, and you ’re a stranger and have n’t said naughty 
things about your neighbors. Cheer up. Life looks 
just as good to me as it does to you. I love this old 
world just as well as any man that ever lived in it, and 
I ’m not a bit pleased over leaving it — any more than 
you are. But I can’t see where I could better matters 
by letting myself get wobbly in the knees. I ’m sorry 
I did n’t make a bigger fight to keep my guns, though. 
I ’d like to have perforated a few more of our most 
worthy Committee before I quit; our friend Shorty, 
for instance,” he stipulated wickedly and clearly, “ and 
the Captain.” 

If he were deliberately trying to goad Shorty to 
r further profanity, the result should have satisfied him. 
The huge shadow of Shorty moving back and forth 
upon the front wall of the tent, became violently agi- 
tated and developed a gigantic arm that waved threat- 
eningly over the ridge pole. The other guards laughed 
and checked their laughter with a suddenness which 


34 


THE GRINGOS 


made Jack’s eyes leave the dancing shadow and seek 
questioningly the closed tent flaps. 

“ If I ’m any good at reading signs, we are now 
about to he tried by our peers — twelve good men and 
true/’ he announced ironically. “ Brace up, old man ! 
The chances are you ’ll soon be out of this mess and 
headed for home. Don’t be afraid to tell the truth — - 
and don’t act scared ; they ’ll take that as a sure sign 
you ’ve got a guilty conscience. Just keep a stiff upper 
lip; it won’t take long; we do things in a hurry, out 
here ! ” 

“ Say, you ’re a brick, Mr. Allen ! ” the boy burst 
out, impulsively gripping the hand of his champion. 

Jack jerked his hand away — not unkindly, but 
rather as if he feared to drop, even for an instant, his 
flippant defiance of the trick fate had played him. 
The jerk sent a small, shining thing sliding down to 
the floor; where it stood upright and quivered in the 
soft sand. 

“Lord!” he ejaculated under his breath, snatching 
it up as a thief would snatch at his spoils. He looked 
fearfully at the closed flaps, outside which the tram- 
pling of many feet sounded closer and closer; and 
with a warning shake of his head at the other, slid 
the dagger into his sleeve again, carefully fastening 
the point in the stout hem of the buckskin. 


THEY CALLED IT JUSTICE 35 

“ You never can tell,” lie muttered, smiling queerly 
as he made sure the weapon was not noticeable. 

He was rolling another cigarette when the Captain 
parted the tent flaps and came stooping in, followed by 
twelve men of the Committee who were to he the jury, 
and as many spectators as could crowd after them. 

“ Gentlemen, be seated,” the Captain invited form- 
ally, and motioned the jury to the crude bunks that 
lined one side of the large tent. Jack and the boy he 
moved farther from the entrance, and took up his own 
position where his sharp eyes commanded every inch 
of the interior and where the gun which he drew from 
its holster and rested upon his knee could speak its 
deadly rebuke to any man there if, in the upholding of 
justice, the Captain deemed it necessary. 

The jury shuffled to their places, perched in a row 
upon the edge of the hunks and waited silently, their 
eyes fixed expectantly upon their Captain. The crowd 
edged into the corners and along the sides, their hat 
crowns scraping the canvas roof as they were forced 
closer to the low wall. 

The Captain waited until the silence was a palpable 
thing made alive by the rhythmic breathing of the 
men who were to look upon this new travesty of justice. 

“ Gentlemen,” he said at last, his sonorous voice 
carrying his words distinctly to the crowd without, 


36 


THE GRINGOS 


“ we are now ready to proceed with the investigation. 
I wish to state, for the information of those present, 
that after the prisoners were placed here under guard, 
I went to get a statement from the wounded man, Mr. 
Texas Bill. I found him dying from a wound inflicted 
upon his person by a pistol hall which passed through 
his left lung, above and to the right of his heart. I 
did not take a written statement, for lack of time and 
writing materials. But Texas swore — ” 

“ Yeah — I ’ll bet he swore ! ” commented Bill Wil- 
son under his breath. Every one looked toward Bill, 
standing just inside the flaps, and the Captain scowled 
while he waited for attention. 

“ Texas swore that he was shot by one of the pris- 
oners, Jack Allen by name, who fired upon him with- 
out due provocation, while he was talking to this other 
prisoner, whose name we have yet to learn. Texas 
stated that Allen, appearing suddenly from behind 
some bushes, began shooting with deadly intent and 
without warning, wantonly murdering Bawhide Jack, 
who lies dead in Smith’s back room, and shooting him, 
Texas, through the lung. He also stated that Mr. Dick 
Swift was with him and Bawhide Jack, and was also 
shot by the prisoner, Jack Allen, without cause or 
provocation. 

“ They had met the stranger and were standing talk- 


THEY CALLED IT JUSTICE 37 

ing to him about his luck in the diggings. This stranger, 
who is the other prisoner, was inclined to be sassy, and 
made a pass at Rawhide with his fist, telling him to 
mind his own business and not ask so many questions. 
Rawhide struck back ; and Allen, coming out from be- 
hind some bushes, began shooting.” 

The Captain stopped and looked calmly and judicially 
from face to face in the crowd. 

“ That, gentlemen, is the statement made to me by 
Texas Bill, who now lies dead in Pete’s Place as a re- 
sult of the wound inflicted by Allen.” 

“ That ? s a lot of swearing for a man to do that ’s 
been shot through the lungs,” commented Bill Wilson 
skeptically. 

The Captain gave him a malevolent look and con- 
tinued. “ We will as\ Mr. Swift to come forward and 
tell us what he knows of this deplorable and, if I may 
be permitted the term, disgraceful affair.” 

Mr. Swift edged his way carefully through the crowd 
with his left arm thrust out to protect the right, which 
was bandaged and rested in a blood-stained sling. He 
asked permission to sit down; kicked a box into the 
small, open space between the Captain, the jury, and 
the prisoners, and seated himself with the air of a man 
about to perform an extremely painful duty. 

“ Hold up your right hand,” commanded the Captain. 


38 


THE GRINGOS 


Swift apologetically raised his left hand and gazed 
steadfastly into the cold, impartial eyes of his Captain. 

“ You swear that you will tell the truth, the whole 
truth, and nothing but the truth, so-help-you-God ? ” 

Swift, his purplish eyes wide and clear and honest 
as the gaze of a baby, calmly affirmed that he did. 

Jack grinned and lazily fanned the smoke of his 
cigarette away, so that he might the better gaze upon 
this man who was about to tell the whole truth and 
nothing else. He caught Swift’s eye and added a sneer- 
ing lift to the smile; and Swift’s eyes changed from 
bland innocence to hate triumphant. 

“ Mr. Swift, you will now relate to us the circum- 
stances of this affair, truthfully, in the order of their 
happening,” directed the deep voice of the Captain. 

Mr. Swift carefully eased his wounded arm in its 
sling, turned his innocent gaze upon the crowd, and 
began : 

“ Texas, Rawhide, and myself were crossing the 
sandy stretch south of town about noon, when we met 
this chap — the stranger there.” He nodded slightly to- 
ward the boy. “ I was walking behind the other two, but 
I heard Rawhide say : ‘ Hello, son, any luck in the dig- 
gin’s ? ’ The kid said : ‘ None of your damn business ! ’ 
That made Rawhide kinda mad, being spoke to that 
way when he just meant to be friendly, and he told 


THEY CALLED IT JUSTICE 39 


the kid he better keep a civil tongue in his head if he 
wanted to get along smooth — or words to that effect. 
I don’t,” explained Mr. Swift virtuously, “ remember 
the exact words, because I was looking at the fellow 
and wondering what made him so surly. He sassed 
Rawhide again, and told him to mind his own busi- 
ness and give advice when it was asked for, and struck 
at him. Rawhide hit back, and then I heard a shot, 
and Rawhide fell over. I looked around quick, and 
started to pull my gun, but a bullet hit me here — ” 
Mr. Swift laid gentle finger-tips upon his arm near the 
shoulder — “ so I could n’t. I saw it was Jack Allen 
shooting and coming towards us from a clump of bushes 
off to the right of us. He shot again, and Texas Bill fell. 
I ducked behind a bush and started for help, when I 
met the Captain and a few others coming out to see 
what was the matter. That,” finished Mr. Swift, “ is 
the facts of the case, just as they happened.” 

The Captain waited a minute or two, that the 
“ facts ” might sink deep into the minds of the 
listeners. 

“ Were any shots fired by any one except Allen?” 
he asked coldly, when the silence was sufficiently em- 
phasized. 

u There were not. Nobody,” Swift flashed with a 
very human resentment, <( had a chance after he com- 


40 


THE GRINGOS 


menced ! ” He flushed at the involuntary tribute to 
the prowess of his enemy, when he saw that maddening 
grin appear again on Jack’s lips; a grin which called 
him liar and scoundrel and in the same flicker defied 
him. 

The investigation took on the color of a sensation 
at that point, when the stranger sprang suddenly to his 
feet and stood glaring at the witness. There were no 
signs now of tears or weakness ; he was a man fighting 
for what he believed to be right and just. 

“ Captain, that man is a dirty liar ! ” he cried hotly. 
“ He and his precious cronies tried to rob me, out there. 
I was coming into town from across the bay; I had 
hired a Spaniard to bring me across in a small sail- 
boat, and the tide carried us down too far, so I told 
him to land and I ’d walk back to town, rather than 
tack back. And these men met me, and tried to rob 
me ! This man,” he accused excitedly, pointing a rage- 
ful finger at Swift, “ was going to stab me in the throat 
when he saw I resisted. I was fighting the three, and 
they were getting the best of me. I never owned a 
gun, and I just had my fists. The two others had 
grabbed me, and this man Swift pulled a knife. I 
remember one of them saying : ‘ Don’t shoot — it ’ll 
bring the whole town out!’ And just as this one 
raised his knife to drive it into my throat — they were 


THEY CALLED IT JUSTICE 41 

bending me backwards, the other two — I heard a shot, 
and this one dropped his knife and gave a yell. There 
were two other shots, and the two who were holding 
me dropped. This one ran off. Then — ” The boy 
turned and looked down at Jack, smoking his cigarette 
and trying to read what lay behind the stolid stare of 
the twelve men who sat in a solemn row on the bunks 
opposite him. “ This young man — ” His lips trem- 
bled, and he stopped, to bite them into a more manlike 
firmness. 

“ Gentlemen, do what you like with me, but you ’ve 
got to let this man go ! He ’s the coolest, bravest man 
I ever saw! He saved my life. You can’t hang him 
for protecting a man from murder and robbery ! ” 

“ Young man,” interrupted the Captain after a sur- 
prised silence, “ we admire your generosity in trying to 
clear your fellow prisoner, but you must let this jury 
try his case. What ’s your name \ ” 

“ John Belden, of Cambridge, Massachusetts.” The 
young fellow’s rage faded to a sullen calm under the 
cold voice. 

The Captain made a startled movement and looked 
at him sharply. “ And what was your hurry to get 
to town ? ” he asked, after a minute. 

“ I wanted to get a ticket on the boat, the Mary 
Elizabeth , that is going to leave for Hew York to- 


42 


THE GRINGOS 


morrow. I wanted to go — home. I Ve had enough 
of gold-hunting ! ” Youthful bitterness was in his tone 
and in the look he turned on the jury. 

The Captain cleared his throat When he spoke 
again, he addressed the twelve before him: 

“ Gentlemen of the jury, I have reasons for feeling 
convinced that this young man is in part telling the 
truth. I am acquainted with his father, unless he has 
given a name he does not own — and his face is a 
pretty good witness for him; he looks like his dad. 
While he has undoubtedly glossed and warped the story 
of the shooting in a mistaken effort to make things 
look better for the man who did the killing, I can see 
no sufficient reason for holding him. This Committee 
stands for justice and is not backward about tempering 
it with mercy. Gentlemen of the jury, I recommend 
that John Bel den be released from custody and per- 
mitted to go home. He was unarmed when I took him, 
and there is no evidence of his having dealt anything 
but hard words to the victims of the shooting. Gentle- 
men, you will give your verdict; after which we will 
proceed with the investigation.” 

The jury looked at one another and nodded to the 
man on the end of the first bunk; and he, shifting a 
quid of tobacco to the slack of his right cheek, ex- 
pectorated gravely into the sand and spoke solemnly: 


THEY CALLED IT JUSTICE 43 

“ The verdict of the jury is all in favor of turnin’ 
the kid loose.” 

“ J ohn Belden, you are released. And we ’d advise 
you to he a little careful how you sass men in this 
country. Also, you better see about that ticket on the 
Mary Elizabeth. Jack Allen, you may come forward 
and take the oath.” 

“ This box is just as comfortable as that one,” said 
Jack, “ and you needn’t worry but what I’ll tell the 
truth ! ” He took a last pull at his cigarette, pinched 
out the fire, and ground the stub under his heel. He 
could feel the silence grow tense with expectancy; and 
when he lifted his eyes, he knew that every man in 
that tent was staring into his face. 

“ I used to believe,” he began clearly, “ in the Vigil- 
antes. If I had been here when the first Committee 
was formed, I ’d have worked for it myself. I believe 
it cleared the town of some of the worst scoundrels in 
the country, and that ’s saying a good deal. But — ” 

“ The Committee,” interrupted the Captain, “ would 
like to hear your story of the shooting. Your private 
opinions can wait until the investigation of that affair 
is ended.” 

“ You ’re right I beg your pardon for forgetting 
that it is not settled yet! ” Jack’s voice was politely 
scornful. “ Well, then, this kid told the truth in every 


44 


THE GRINGOS 


particular, even when he declared that Dick Swift is 
a dirty liar. Swift is a liar. He ’s also a thief, and 
he ’s also a murderer — and a few other things not as 
decent ! 

“ As to the row, I was walking out that way, when 
I saw this kid coming up from the bay toward the 
town. The three, Swift, Eawhide Jack, and Texas 
Bill, met him where the — er — trouble took place. I 
was too far off to hear what was said ; in fact, I did n’t 
pay any attention much, till I saw the kid struggling 
to get away. I walked towards them then. It was 
easy enough to see that it was a hold-up, pure and 
simple. I was about fifty yards from them when I 
saw Swift, here, raise a knife to jab it into the boy’s 
throat. Texas and Rawhide were both holding the 
kid’s arms and bending him backwards so he could n’t 
do anything. When I saw the knife, I began to shoot.” 
His eyes sought those of Bill Wilson, standing in the 
crowd near the door. “ That ’s the truth of the whole 
matter,” he said, speaking directly to Bill. “ I did n’t 
try to make trouble; but I couldn’t stand by and see 
a man murdered, no more than any decent man could.” 
He paused ; and still looking toward Bill, added : “ I 
did n’t even notice particularly who the men were, 
until I went up to the boy. It all happened so sudden 
that I — ” 


THEY CALLED IT JUSTICE 45 

The Captain cleared his throat. “ You admit, then, 
that you killed Rawhide Jack and Texas Bill this 
morning ? ” 

a I surely do,” retorted Jack. “ And if you want 
to know, I ’m kinda proud of it ; it was a long shot — 
to clean the town of two such blackguards. And right 
here I want to apologize to the town for making a 
bungle of killing Swift ! ” 

“ We have two witnesses who also swear that you 
killed Tex’ and Rawhide, though they give a very dif- 
ferent version of the trouble with the boy. Would 
you ask us to believe that Texas Bill lied with his last 
breath ? ” 

“ If he told the story you say he did, he certainly 
lied most sinfully with his last breath ; but I ’d hate 
to take your word for anything, so I don’t know 
whether he lied or not.” 

“ Mr. Swift, here, tells the same story that Texas 
Bill told.” The Captain chose to ignore the insults. 
“ I think their testimony should carry more weight 
with the Committee than yours, or the boy’s. You are 
trying to save your neck; and the boy probably feels 
that he owes you some gratitude for taking his part. 
But the Committee’s business is to weed out the dan- 
gerous element which is altogether too large in this 
town; and the Committee feels that you are one of the 


46 


THE GRINGOS 


most dangerous. However, we will call another wit- 
ness. Shorty, you may come forward.” 

Shorty came scowling up and sat down upon the 
box Swift had occupied. He took the oath and after- 
wards declared that he had overheard Jack coaching the 
boy about what he should tell the Committee. The 
Captain, having brought out that point, promptly ex- 
cused him. 

“ Gentlemen of the jury, you have heard the evi- 
dence, and your duty is plain. We are waiting for the 
verdict.” 

The man with the cud looked a question at the Cap- 
tain; turned and glanced down the row at the eleven, 
who nodded their heads in unanimous approval of his 
thoughts. He once more shifted the wad of tobacco, 
as a preliminary to expectorating gravely into the sand 
floor, and pronounced his sentence with a promptness 
that savored of relish: 

“ The verdict of the jury is that we hang Jack Allen 
for killin’ Texas and Rawhide, and for bein’ a mean, 
ornery cuss, anyway.” 

The Captain turned coldly to the prisoner. “ You 
hear the verdict. The Committee believes it to be 
just.” 

He looked at the group near the door. “ Mr. Wil- 
son,” he called maliciously, “you will now be given 


THEY CALLED IT JUSTICE 47 

an opportunity to collect from the prisoner what he 
owes you.” 

“ Jack Allen don’t owe me a cent! ” cried Bill Wil- 
son hotly, shouldering his way to the open space be- 
fore the Captain. “ But there ’s a heavy debt hang- 
ing over this damned Committee — a debt they ’ll have 
to pay themselves one day at the end of a rope, if 
there ’s as many honest men in this town as I think 
there is. 

“ I helped form the first Vigilance Committee, boys. 
We did it to protect the town from just such men as 
are running the Committee right now. When crimes 
like this can be done right before our eyes, in broad 
daylight, I say it ’s time another Committee was 
formed, to hang this one ! Here they ’ve got a man 
that they know, and we all know, ain’t done a thing 
but what any brave, honest man would do. They’ve 
gone through a farce trial that ’d make the Digger In- 
juns ashamed of themselves ; and they ’ve condemned 
Jack Allen, that ’s got more real manhood in his little 
finger than there is in the dirty, lying carcasses of the 
whole damned outfit — they ’ve condemned him to be 
hung! 

“ And why ! I can tell yuh why — and it ain’t for 
killing Texas and Kawhide — two as measly, ornery 
cusses as there was in town — it ain’t for that. It ’s 


48 


THE GRINGOS 


for daring to say, last night in my place, that the 
Committee is rotten to the core, and that they murdered 
Sandy McTavish in cold blood when they took him out 
and hung him for killing that greaser in self-defense. 
It ’s for speaking his mind, the mind of an honest 
man, that they ’re going to hang him. That is, they 11 
hang him if you ’ll stand by and let ’em do it. I be- 
lieve both these boys told a straight story. I believe 
them three was trying to pull off a daylight robbery, 
and Jack shot to save the kid. 

“ Now, men, see here ! I for one have stood about 
all I ’m going to stand from this bunch of cutthroats 
that ’ve taken the place of the Committee we organized 
to protect the town. To-night I want every man that 
calls himself honest to come to my place and hold a 
mass meeting, to elect a Committee like we had in 
the first place. I want every man — ” 

“ Bill, you’re crazy!” It was Jack, white to the 
lips in sheer terror for Wilson, Jack who refused to 
blench at his own dire strait, who sprang up and 
clapped a hand over the mouth that was sealing the 
doom of the owner. “ Take him out, Jim, for God’s 
sake ! Take him — Bill, listen to me, you fool ! What 
was it you were telling me, there in your own doorway, 
to-day ? About not thinking out loud ? You can’t save 
me by talking like that ! These men — those that don’t 


THEY CALLED IT JUSTICE 49 

thate me — are so scared of their own necks that they 
wouldn’t lift a finger to save a twin brother. Take 
him out, boys! Bill doesn’t mean any harm.” He 
tried to smile and failed utterly. “He likes me, and 
he ’s — he ’s — ” 

Shorty it was who jerked him away from Bill. The 
Captain, on his feet, was dominating the uneasy crowd 
with his cold stare more than with the gun he held in 
his hand. 

“ This Committee,” he stated in his calm, judicial 
tone, which chilled the growing fire of excitement and 
held the men silent that they might listen, “ this Com- 
mittee regrets that in the course of its unpleasant duties 
it must now and then rouse the antagonism of a bad 
man’s friends. But this Committee must perform the 
duties for which it was elected. This Committee is 
sorry to see Mr. Wilson take the stand he takes, but 
it realizes that friendship for the condemned man leads 
him to make statements and threats for which he should 
not be held responsible. Gentlemen, this court of in- 
quiry is dismissed, and it may not be amiss to point 
out the necessity for order being maintained among 
you. The Committee would deeply regret any trouble 
arising at this time.” 

“ Oh, damn you and your Committee ! ” gritted Bill 
Wilson, out of the bitterness that filled him. He gave 


50 


THE GRINGOS 


Jack one glance; one, and with his jaws set hard to- 
gether, turned his hack. 

The crowd pushed and parted to make way for him. 
Jim, his face the color of a pork rind, followed dog- 
like at the heels of his boss. And when they had passed, 
the tent began to belch forth men who walked with 
heads and shoulders a little bent, talking together unde^r 
their breaths of this man who dared defy the Committee 
to its face, and whose daring was as impotent as the 
breeze that still pulled at the flapping corner of the 
cloth sign over the door of his place. 

Bill glanced dully up at the sign before he opened 
his door. “ Better get the hammer and nail that cor- 
ner down, Jim,” he said morosely, and went in. He 
poured a whisky glass two-thirds full of liquor and 
emptied it with one long swallow — and Bill was not 
a drinking man. 

“ God ! This thing they call justice I ” he groaned, 
as he set down the glass; and went out to make an at- 
tempt at organizing a rescue party, though he had little 
hope of succeeding. Jack was a stranger to the better 
class of business men, and those who did know him 
were either friends of the Committee or in deadly fear 
of it. Still, Bill was a gambler. He was probably 
putting the mark of the next victim on himself ; but 
he did not stop for that. 


CHAPTER IY 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE OAK 

J ACK sat looking after the crowd that shuffled 
through the doorway into the sunlight. He 
thought he had believed that he would receive the 
sentence which the juryman had spoken so baldly; yet, 
after the words had been actually spoken, he stared 
blankly after Bill and the others, and incredulously 
at the Captain, who seated himself upon a bunk op- 
posite to watch his prisoner, his pistol resting sug- 
gestively upon his knee. The boy lingered to shake 
Jack’s unresponsive hand and mutter a broken sen- 
tence or two of gratitude and sympathy. But Jack 
scarcely grasped his meaning, and his answer sounded 
chillingly calm; so that the boy, wincing under the 
cold stare of the Captain and the seeming indifference 
of the prisoner, turned away with downy chin a-tremble 
and in his eyes the look of horrified awe which some- 
times comes to a youth who has seen death hesitate 
just over his head, pass him by, and choose another. 

In the doorway he stopped and looked back be- 


52 THE GRINGOS 

wildered. Jack had said that he loved life and would 
hate to leave it; and yet he sat there calmly, scraping 
idly with his boot-toe a little furrow in the loose sand, 
his elbows resting on his knees, his face unlined by 
frown or bitterness, his eyes bent abstractedly upon the 
shallow trench he was desultorily digging. He did 
not look as the boy believed a man should look who 
has just been condemned to die the ignominious death 
of hanging. The boy shuddered and went out into the 
sunlight, dazed with this glimpse he had got of the 
inexorable hardness of life. 

Jack did not even know when the boy left. He, 
also, was looking upon the hardness of life, but he was 
looking with the eyes of the fighter. So long as Jack 
Allen had breath in his body, he would fight to keep 
it there. His incredulity against the verdict swung 
to a tenacious disbelief that it would really come to the 
worst. So long as he was alive, so long as he could 
feel the weight of the dagger in his sleeve, it was tem- 
peramentally impossible for him to believe that he was 
going to die that day. 

Plans he made and smoothed them in the dirt with 
his toe. If they did not bind his arms . . . They had 
not tied Sandy’s arms, he remembered; and he won- 
dered if a dagger concealed in Sandy’s sleeve would 
have made any essential difference in the result of that 


AT THE OAK 


53 


particular crime of the Committee. He sickened at a 
vivid memory of how Sandy had ridden away, just a 
week or so before; and of the appealing glance which 
he had sent toward Bill’s place when Shorty started to 
lead the buckskin from before the prison tent with six 
men walking upon either side and a curious crowd 
straggling after. Would a dagger in Sandy’s sleeve 
have made any difference ? 

Then his thoughts swung to the Mexican who had 
told him of the trick, only the night before. It had 
amused Jack to experiment with his own knife; and 
the very novelty of the thing had impelled him to slip 
his dagger into the new hiding-place that morning 
when he dressed. The Captain had not discovered it 
there — but would it make any difference? It oc- 
curred to him that he need not die the death of 
dangling and strangling at the end of the rope, at any 
rate; if it came to dying . . . Jack became acutely 
conscious of the steady beat in his chest, and imme- 
diately afterward felt the same throb in his throat; 
he could stop that beating whenever he chose, if they 
did not bind his arms. 

“ Horse ’s ready, Captain,” announced Shorty suc- 
cinctly, thrusting his head through the closed flaps ; and 
the Captain rose instantly and made a commanding 
gesture to his prisoner. 


54 


THE GRINGOS 


Jack swept the loose dirt back into the furrow with 
one swing of his foot and stood up. He went out 
quietly, two steps in advance of the Captain and the 
Captain’s drawn pistol, and advanced u n fl in chingly 
towards the horse that stood saddled in the midst of 
the group of executioners, with the same curious crowd 
looking on greedily at the spectacle. 

u Ever been on a horse \ ” asked the Captain, his 
deep voice little more than a growl. 

“ Once or twice,” Jack answered indifferently. 

“ Climb on, then ! ” 

Jack was young and he was very human. It might 
be his last hour on earth, but there rose up in him a 
prideful desire to show them whether he had ever been 
on a horse; he caught the saddle-horn with one hand 
and vaulted vaingloriously into the saddle without 
touching a toe to the stirrup. The buckskin ducked 
and danced sidewise at the end of the rope in Shorty’s 
hand, and more than one gun flashed into sight at the 
unexpectedness of the move. 

The Captain scowled at the exclamations of admira- 
tion from the crowd. u You need n’t try any funny 
work, young man, or I ’ll tie you hand as well as foot ! ” 
he threatened sternly. “ Give me that rope, Davis.” 

Then Jack paid in pain for his vanity, and paid in 
full. The Captain did not bind his arms — perhaps 


AT THE OAK 55 

because of the crowd and a desire to seem merciful. 
But though he merely tied the prisoner’s ankle after 
the usual manner, he knotted the small rope with a 
vicious yank, pulled it as tight as he could and passed 
the rope under the flinching belly of the buckskin to 
Davis, on the other side. Also he sent a glance of 
meaning which the other read unerringly and obeyed 
most willingly. Davis drew the rope taut under the 
cinch and tied Jack’s other ankle as if he were putting 
the diamond hitch on a pack mule. The two stepped 
back and eyed him sharply for some sign of pain, when 
all was done. 

“ Thanks,” drawled Jack. “ Sorry I can’t do as 
much for you.” Whereupon he set his teeth against 
the growing agony of strained muscles and congesting 
arteries, and began to roll a cigarette with fingers which 
he held rigidly from trembling. 

Bill Wilson, returning gloomily to the doorway of 
his place, grated an oath and turned away his head. 
Some day, he promised himself vengefully, those two 
— yes, and the whole group of murderers moving 
briskly away from the tent — would pay for that out- 
rage ; and he prayed that the day might come soon. 

He went heavily into the big room where men were 
already foregathering to gossip between drinks of the 
trial and of the man who was to die. Bill bethought 


56 


THE GRINGOS 


him of the young stranger; made some inquiries of 
certain inoffensive individuals among the crowd, and 
sent Jim out with instructions to find the kid and bring 
him back with him. 

Bill was standing in the door waiting for Jim to 
return, when, in a swirl of dust, came Dade galloping 
around a corner and to the very doorstep before he 
showed any desire to slow up. At the first tightening 
of the reins, the white horse stiffened his front legs, 
dug two foot-long furrows and stopped still. Bill had 
no enthusiasm for the perfect accomplishment of the 
trick. He stood with his hands thrust deep into his 
pockets and regarded the rider glumly. 

“ Well, you got here,” he grunted, with the brevity 
of utter misery. 

“ You bet I did ! I was away from the hacienda when 
the peon came, or I ’d have got here sooner,” Dade ex- 
plained cheerfully, swinging to the ground with a jin- 
gle of his big, Mexican spurs that had little silver bells 
to swell the tinkly chimes when he moved. “ Where ’s 
Jack?” 

Big Bill Wilson’s jaw trembled with an impulse to- 
wards tears which the long, harsh years behind him 
would not let him shed. “ They ’ve got him,” he said 
in a choked tone, and waved a hand toward the west. 

“ Who ’s got him ? ” Dade clanked a step closer and 


AT THE OAK 57 

peered sharply into Bill’s face, with all the easy good 
humor wiped out of his own. 

“ The Committee. You’re too late; they’re taking 
him out to the oak. Been gone about ten minutes. 
They had it in for him, and — I could n’t do a thing ! 
The men in this town — ” Epithets rushed incoher- 
ently from Bill’s lips, just as violent weeping marks 
the reaction from a woman’s first silence in the face of 
tragedy. 

Dade did not hear a word he was saying, after those 
first jerky sentences. He stood looking past Bill at 
a drunken Irishman who was making erratic progress 
up the street; and he was no more conscious of the 
Irishman than he was of Bill’s scorching condemna- 
tion of the town which could permit such outrages. 

“Watch Surry a minute!” he said abruptly, and 
hurried into the gambling hall. In a minute he was 
back again and lifting foot to the stirrup. 

“ How long did you say they ’ve been gone ? ” he 
asked, without looking at Bill. 

“ Ten or fifteen minutes. Say, you can’t do any- 
thing! ” 

Dade was already half-way up the block, a swirl of 
sand-dust marking his flight. Bill stared after him 
distressfully. 

“ He ’ll go and get his light put out — and he won’t 


58 


THE GRINGOS 


help Jack a damn bit,” he told himself miserably, and 
went in. Life that day looked very hard to big-hearted 
Bill Wilson, and scarcely worth the trouble of living it. 

It broke the heart of Dade Hunter to see how near 
the sinister procession was to the live oak that had 
come to be looked upon as the gallows of the Vigilance 
Committee; a gallows whose broad branches sheltered 
from rain and sun alike the unmarked graves of the 
men who had come there shuddering and looked upon 
it, and shuddering had looked no more upon anything 
in this world. 

Until he was near enough to risk betraying his haste 
by the hoof-beats of his horse, Dade kept Surry at a 
run. Upon the crest of the slope which the procession 
was leisurely descending, he slowed to a lope; and so 
overtook the crowd that straggled always out to the 
hangings, came they ever so frequent. Reeling in the 
saddle, he came up with the stragglers, singing and 
marking time with a half-empty bottle of whisky. 

The few who knew him looked at one another 
askance. 

“ Say, Hunter, ain’t yuh got any feelin’s? That 
there ’s your pardner on the hoss,” one loose-jointed 
miner expostulated. 

“Sure, I got feelin’s! Have a d-drink?” Dade 
leered drunkenly at the speaker. “Jack’s — no good 


AT THE OAK 59 

anyway. To T ’im lie ’d get hung if he — have a 
d-drink % ” 

The loose- jointed one would, and so would his 
neighbors. The Captain glanced back at them, gave 
a contemptuous lift to his upper lip and faced again 
to the front. 

Dade uncoiled his riata with aimless, fumbling 
fingers and swung the noose facetiously toward the 
bottle, uptilted over the eager mouth of a weazened 
little Irishman. He caught bottle and hand together, 
let them go with a quick flip of the rawhide and wag- 
gled his head in apology. 

“Excuse me, Mike,” he mumbled, while the Irish- 
man stopped and glared. “ Go awn ! Have a drink. 
Mighta spilled it — shame ! ” 

Jack looked back, his heart thumping heavily at 
sound of the voice, thick though it was and maudlin. 
Dade drunk and full of coarse foolery was a sight he 
had never before looked upon; but Dade’s presence, 
drunk or sober, made his own plight seem a shade less 
hopeless. He did not dare a second glance, with Davis 
and the Captain walking at either stirrup; but he 
listened anxiously — listened and caught a drunken 
mumble from the rear, and a chorus of chuckling laughs 
coming after. 

He looked ahead. The great oak was close, so close 


60 


THE GRINGOS 


that he might have counted the narrow little ridges 
of red soil beneath; the ridges which he knew were 
the graves of those who had died before him. The 
great bough that reached out over the spot where the 
earth was trampled smooth in horrible significance — 
the branch from which a noosed rope dangled sinuously 
in the breeze that came straight off the ocean — swayed 
with majestic deliberation as if Fate herself were 
beckoning. 

He clasped his hands upon the saddle-horn and, 
stealthily loosening the dagger-point from the hem of 
his sleeve, slid the weapon cautiously into his hand. 
[When he felt the handle against his palm, he knew 
that he had been holding his breath, and that the sigh 
he gave was an involuntary relief that the others had 
not glimpsed the blade under his clasped fingers. He 
would not have to dangle from that swinging rope, at 
any rate. 

“ Hello, pard ! ” Dade’s voice called thickly from 
close behind. “ Looking for some rope ? ” 

Jack turned his head just as the looped rawhide 
slithered past him and settled taut over the head of the 
startled buckskin. Like a lightning gleam slashing 
through the dark he saw Dade’s plan, and played his 
own part unhesitatingly. 

Two movements he made while the buckskin sat back 


AT THE OAK 


61 


upon his naunches and gathered his muscles for a for- 
ward spring. The first was to lean and send a down- 
ward sweep of the dagger across the rope by which 
Shorty was leading the horse, and the second was a 
backward lunge that drove the knife deep into the bared 
throat of the Captain, stunned into momentary inaction 
by the suddenness of Dade’s assault. 

The buckskin gave a mighty leap that caught Shorty 
unawares and sent him into a crumpled heap in the 
sand. Dade’s riata, tight as a fiddle-string at first, 
slackened as the buckskin, his breath coming in snorts, 
surged alongside. Jack leaned again — this time to 
snatch the ivory-handled revolver from the holster on 
Dade’s saddle. As well as he could with his legs held 
rigid by the rope that tied his ankles, he twisted in 
the saddle and sent leaden answer to the spiteful hark- 
ing of the guns that called upon them to halt. 

Davis he shot, and saw him sway and fall flat, with 
a smoking gun in his hand. Another crumpled for- 
ward ; and Shorty, just getting painfully upon his feet, 
he sent into the sand again to stay; for his skill with 
small arms was something uncanny to witness, and 
his temper was up and turning him into a savage like 
the rest. 

But the range was rapidly growing to rifle-length, 
and death fell short of his enemies after Shorty went 


62 


THE GRINGOS 


down. When he saw his fourth bullet kick up a harm- 
less little geyser of sand two rods in advance of the 
agitated crowd, he left off and turned to his friend. 

“ I thought you were drunk,” he observed inanely, 
as is common to men who have just come through sit- 
uations for which no words have been coined. 

“ You ain’t the only one who made that mistake,” 
Dade retorted grimly, and looked back. “ Good thing 
those hombres are afoot. We ’ll get on a little farther 
and then we ’ll fix a hackamore so you can do your own 
riding.” 

“ I can’t stand it to ride any farther — ” 

“ Are you shot \ ” Dade pulled in a little and looked 
anxiously into his face. 

“ It ’s the rope. They tied it so tight it ’s torture. 
I ’d never have believed it could hurt so — but they 
gave me an extra twist or two to show their friendship, 
I reckon.” 

Dade rode on beyond a little, wooded knoll before 
he stopped, lest the crowd, seeing them halt, might 
think it worth while to follow them afoot. 

“ They surely did n’t intend you to fall off,” he said 
whimsically, when his knife released the strain. But 
his lips tightened at the outrage; and his eyes, bent 
upon Jack’s left ankle, wore the look of one who could 
kill without pity. 



He twisted in the saddle and sent leaden answer to the 
spiteful barking of the guns. Page 61. 

















































■ 

. 














AT THE OAK 


63 


“ They ’ll never do it to another man/’ declared 
Jack, with vindictive relish. “ It was Davis and the 
Captain ; I killed ’em both.” He rolled stiffly from the 
saddle, found his feet like dead things and stumbled 
to a little hillock, where he sat down. 

Dade, kneeling awkwardly in his heavy, bearskin 
chaparejos, picked at the bonds with the point of his 
knife. “ Lucky you had on boots,” he remarked. 
“ Even as it is, you ’re likely to carry creases for a 
while. How the deuce did you manage to get into this 
particular scrape ? — if I might ask ! ” 

“ I did n’t get into it. This particular scrape got 
me. Say, it’s lucky you happened along just when 
you did.” 

To this very obvious statement the other made no 
reply. He cut the last strand of the rope that bound 
Jack’s ankles so mercilessly, and stood up. “ You bet- 
ter take off your boots and rub some feeling into your 
feet while I make a hackamore for that horse. The 
sooner we get out of this, the better. What ’s left of 
the Committee will probably be pretty anxious to see 
you.” 

“ Oh, damn the Committee! — as Bill remarked 
after the trial.” Jack made an attempt to remove one 
of his boots, found the pain intolerable and desisted 
with a groan. “ I wish they would show up,” he ae- 


64 


THE GRINGOS 


dared. “ I ’d like to give them a taste of this foot- 
tying business ! ” 

Dade went on tying the hackamore with a haste that 
might be called anxious. With just two bullets left in 
the pistol and with no powder upon his person for 
further reloading, he could not share Jack’s eagerness 
to meet the Committee again. When Surry gave over 
rolling with his tongue the little wheel in his bit, and 
with lifted head and eyes alert perked his ears forward 
towards the hill they had just crossed, he slipped the 
hackamore hurriedly into place and turned to his 
friend. 

“ You climb on to Surry, and we ’ll pull out,” he 
said shortly. “ I would n’t give two pesos for this buck- 
skin, but we ’re going to add horse-stealing to our other 
crimes ; and while it ’s all right to damn the Com- 
mittee, it ’s just as well to do it at a distance, just 
now, old man.” 

The caution fell flat, for Jack was wholly absorbed 
by the pain in his feet and ankles, as the blood was 
being forced into the congested veins. Dade led the 
white horse close, to save him the discomfort of hobbling 
to it, and waited until Jack was in the saddle before 
he vaulted upon the tricky-eyed buckskin. He led the 
way down into a shallow depression which wound aim- 
lessly towards the ocean; and later, when trees and 


AT THE OAK 65 

bushes and precipitous bluffs threatened to bar their 
way, he swung abruptly to the east and south. 

“ Maybe you won’t object so hard to Palo Alto now,” 
he bantered at last, when at dusk he ventured out upon 
“ El Camino Real ” (which is pure Spanish for “ The 
King’s Highway”), that had linked Mission to Mis- 
sion all down the fertile length of California when 
the land was wilderness. “ Solitude ought to feel good, 
after to-day.” When he got no answer, Dade looked 
around at the other. 

Jack’s face showed vaguely through the night fog 
creeping in from the clamorous ocean off to the west. 
His legs were hanging free of the stirrups, and his 
hands rested upon the high saddle-horn. 

“ Say, Dade,” he asked irrelevantly and with a 
mystifying earnestness, “ which do you think would 
kill a man quickest — a slash across the throat, or a stab 
in the heart ? ” 

“ I would n’t call either one healthy. Why ? ” 

“ I was just wondering,” Jack returned ambiguously. 
“ If you had n’t happened along — say, how did you 
happen to come? Was that another sample of my 
fool’s luck ? ” Since the coincidence had not struck 
him before, one might guess that he was accustomed 
to having Dade at his elbow when he was most needed. 

“ Bill Wilson sent word that you were making seven 


66 


THE GRINGOS 


kinds of a fool of yourself — Bill named a few of 
them — and advised me to get yon out of town. I ’ve 
more respect for Bill’s judgment than ever. I took 
his advice as it stood — and therefore, you ’re headed 
for safer territory than you were awhile ago. It 
ain’t heaven,” he added, “ but it ’s next thing to it.” 

“I’m not hankering after heaven, right now,” 
averred Jack. u Most any other place looks good to me ; 
I ’m not feeling a bit critical, Dade. And if I did n’t 
say it before, old man, you ’re worth a whole regiment 
to a fellow in a fix.” 


CHAPTER V 


HOSPITALITY 

I F you would enjoy that fine hospitality which gives 
gladly to strangers and to friends alike of its pov- 
erty or plenty, and for the giving asks nothing in re- 
turn, you should seek the far frontiers; hut if you 
would see hospitality glorified into something more 
than a simple virtue, then you should find, if you can, 
one of the old-time haciendas that were the pride of 
early California. 

Time was when the wild-eyed cattle which bore 
upon their fat-cushioned haunches the seared crescent 
that proclaimed them the property of old Don Andres 
Picardo (who owned, by grant of the king, all the 
upper half of the valley of Santa Clara) were free to 
any who hungered. Time was when a traveler might 
shoot a fat yearling and feast his fill, unquestioned by 
the don or the don’s dark-eyed vaqueros. 

Don Andres Picardo was a large-hearted gentleman ; 
and to deny any man meat would bring to his cheeks 
a blush for his niggardliness. That was in the begin- 
ning, when he reigned in peace over the peninsula. 


68 THE GRINGOS 

When the vaqueros, jingling indignantly into the 
patio of his home, first told of carcasses slaughtered 
wantonly and left to rot upon the range with only the 
loin and perhaps a juicy haunch missing, their master 
smiled deprecatingly and waved them back whence 
they came. There were cattle in plenty. What mat- 
tered one steer, or even a fat cow, slain wastefully? 
Were not thousands left? 

But when tales reached him of cattle butchered 
by the hundred, and of beef that was being sold for 
an atrocious price in San Francisco, the old Spaniard 
was shocked into laying aside the traditions and plac- 
ing some check upon the unmannerly “ gringos ” who 
so abused his generosity. 

He established a camp just within the northern 
boundary of his land; and there he stationed his most 
efficient watch-dog, Manuel Sepulveda, with two 
vaqueros whose business it was to stop the depredations. 

Meat for all who asked for meat, paid they in gold 
or in gratitude — that was their “ patron’s ” order. But 
they must ask. And the vaqueros rode diligently from 
bay to mountain slopes, and each day their hatred of 
the Americanos grew deeper, as they watched over the 
herds of their loved patron, that the gringos might 
not steal that which they might, if they were not 
wolves, have for the asking. 


HOSPITALITY 


69 


The firelight in the tule-thatched hut of Manuel 
Sepulveda winked facetiously at the black fog that 
peered in at the open door. A night wind from the 
north crept up, parted the fog like a black curtain and 
whispered something which set the flames a-dancing 
as they listened. The fog swung back jealously to hear 
what it was, and the wind went away to whisper its 
wonder-tale to the trees that rustled astonishment and 
nodded afterward to one another in approval, like the 
arrant gossips they were. The chill curtain fell straight 
and heavy again before the door, so that the firelight 
shone dimly through its folds; but not before Dade, 
riding at random save for the trust he put in the sure 
homing instinct of his horse, caught the brief gleam 
of light and sighed thankfully. 

“ We TL stop with old Manuel to-night,” he an- 
nounced cheerfully. “ Here ’s his cabin, just ahead.” 

“ And who’s old Manuel?” asked Jack petulantly, 
because of the pain in his feet and his own unpleasant 
memories of that day. 

u Don Andres Picardo’s head vaquero. He camps 
here to keep an eye on the cattle. Some fellows from 
town have been butchering them right and left and 
doing a big business in beef, according to all accounts. 
Manuel hates gringos like centipedes, but I happened 
to get on the good side of him — partly because my 


70 THE GRINGOS 

Spanish is as good as his own. An Americano who 
has black hair and can talk Spanish like the don him- 
self isn’t an Americano, in Manuel’s eyes.” 

While they were unsaddling under the oak tree, 
where the vaqueros kept their riding gear in front of 
the cabin, Manuel himself came to the door and stood 
squinting into the fog, while he flapped a tortilla 
dexterously between his brown palms. 

“ Is it you, Valencia?” he called out in Spanish, 
giving the tortilla a deft, whirling motion to even its 
edges. 

Dade led the way into the zone of light, and Manuel 
stepped back with a series of welcoming nods. His 
black eyes darted curiously to the stranger, who, in 
Manuel’s opinion, looked unpleasantly like a gringo, 
with his coppery hair waving crisply under his som- 
brero, and his eyes that were blue as the bay over there 
to the east. But when Dade introduced him, Jack 
greeted his squat host with a smile that was disarming 
in its boyish good humor, and with language as liquidly 
Spanish as Manuel’s best Castilian, which he reserved 
for his talks with the patron on the porch when the 
senora and the young senorita were by. 

The distrust left Manuel’s eyes as he trotted across 
the hard-trodden dirt floor and laid the tortilla care- 
fully upon a hot rock, where three others crisped and 


HOSPITALITY 71 

curled their edges in delectable promise of future tooth- 
someness. 

He stood up and turned to Dade amiably, his 
knuckles pressing lightly upon his hips that his palms 
might be saved immaculate for the next little corn 
cake which he would presently slap into thin symmetry. 

“ Madre de Dios ! ” he cried suddenly, quite forget- 
ting the hospitable thing he had meant to say about 
his supper. “ You are hurt, Senor ! The blood is on 
your sleeve and your hand.” 

Dade looked down at his hand and laughed. “ I 
did get a scratch. I ’ll let you see what it ’s like.” 

“You never told me you got shot!” accused Jack 
sharply, from where he had thrown himself down on 
a bundle of blankets covered over with a bullock hide 
dressed soft as chamois. 

“ Never thought of it,” retorted Dade in Spanish, 
out of regard for his host. 

“ We had some trouble with the gringos,” he ex- 
plained to Manuel. “ There was a little shooting, and 
a bullet grazed my arm. It does n’t amount to much, 
but I ’ll let you look at it.” 

“ Ah, the gringos ! ” Manuel spat after the hated 
name. “ The patron is too good, too generous ! They 
steal the cattle of the patron, though they might have 
all they need for the asking. Like the green worms 


72 THE GRINGOS 

upon the live oaks, they would strip the patron’s herds 
to the last, lean old hull that is too tough even for their 
wolf teeth! Me, I should like to lasso and drag to 
the death every gringo who comes sneaking in the night 
for the meat which tastes sweeter when it is stolen. 
To-day Valencia rode down to the bayou — ” 

While he told indignantly the tale of the latest pil- 
lage, he bared the wounded arm. Jack got stiffly upon 
his swollen feet to look. It was not a serious wound, 
as wounds go; a deep gash in the bicep, where a bullet 
meant for Dade’s heart had plowed under his upraised 
arm four inches wide of its mark. It must have been 
painful, though he had not once mentioned it; and a 
shamed flush stung Jack’s cheeks when he remembered 
his own complaints because of his feet. 

“ You never told me ! ” he accused again, this time 
in the language of his host. 

“ The Senor Hunter has the brave heart of a Span- 
iard, though his blood is light,” said Manuel rebuk- 
ingly. “ The Senor Hunter would not cry over a big- 
ger hurt than this ! ” 

Jack sat down again upon the bull-hide seat and 
dropped his face between his palms. Old Manuel spoke 
truer than he knew. Dade Hunter was made of the 
stuff that will suffer much for a friend and say nothing 
about it, and to-day was not the first time when Jack 


HOSPITALITY 73 

had all unwittingly given that friendship the test su- 
preme. 

Manuel carefully inspected the wound and mur- 
mured his sympathy. He pulled a bouquet of dry 
herbs from where it hung in a corner, under the low 
ceiling, and set a handful brewing in water, where the 
coals were golden-yellow with heat. He tore a strip 
of linen off Valencia’s best shirt which he was saving 
for fiestas, and prepared a bandage, interrupting him- 
self now and then to dart over and inspect the tor- 
tillas baking on the hot rock. For a fat man he moved 
with extraordinary briskness, and so managed to do 
three things at one time and do them all thoroughly; 
he washed and dressed the wound with the herbs 
squeezed into a poultice, rescued the tortillas from 
scorching, and spake his mind concerning the gringos 
who, he declared, were despoiling this his native land. 
Then he lifted certain pots and platters to the center of 
the hut and cheerfully announced supper ; and squatted 
on the floor, facing his guests over the food. 

“ There ’s another thing that bothers me, Manuel,” 
Dade announced humorously, when they three were 
seated around the pot of frijoles, the earthen pan of 
smoking carne-seco (which is meat flavored hotly after 
the Spanish style) and a stack of the tortillas Manuel’s 
fat hands had created while he talked. 


74 THE GRINGOS 

Manuel, bending a tortilla into a scoop wherewith 
to help himself to the brown beans, raised his black 
eyes anxiously. “ But is there further hurt ? ” he 
asked, and glanced wistfully at the tortilla before lay- 
ing it down that he might minister further to the 
sehor. 

“ No — go on with your supper. There ’s a buck- 
skin horse out there that the gringos may say I stole. 
I don’t want the beast ; he ’s about fourteen years old 
and he ’s got a Homan nose to beat Caesar himself, and 
a bad eye and a wicked heart.” 

“ Dios ! ” murmured Manuel over the list of equine 
shortcomings and took a large, relieved bite of tortilla 
and beans. The sehor was pleased to jest with a poor 
vaquero, but the sehor would doubtless explain. He 
chewed luxuriously and waited, his black eyes darting 
from this face which he knew and liked, to that strange 
one of the blue eyes and the hair that was like the 
dullest of dull California gold. 

“ I don’t like that caballo,” went on Dade, helping 
himself to meat, “ and so I ’d hate like the deuce to 
be hung for stealing him ; sabe ? ” 

Manuel licked a finger before 'he spread his hands 
to show how completely he failed to understand. “ But 
if the caballo does not please the senor, why then did 
the senor steal — ” 


HOSPITALITY 


75 


“ You see, I wanted to bring my partner — Senor 
J ack Allen — down here with me. And he was riding 
the caballo, and he could n’t get off — ” 

Manuel swore a Spanish oath politely, to please his 
guest who wished to amaze him. 

“ Because he was tied on.” Dade failed just there 
to keep a betraying hardness out of his voice. “ The 
Viligantes were — going to — hang him.” The last 
two words were cut short off with the click of his jaws 
coming together. 

Manuel thereupon swore more sincerely and spilled 
beans from his tortilla scoop. He knew the ways of 
the Committee. Tour months ago — when the Com- 
mittee was newer and more just — they had hanged 
the third cousin of his half-sister’s husband. It is true, 
the man had killed a woman with a knife ; yet Manuel’s 
black beard bristled when he thought of the affront to 
his hypothetical kinship. 

“ I had to take the two together,” Dade explained, 
trying with better success to speak lightly. “ And now, 
if I turn the buckskin loose, he may go back — and he 
may not. I was wondering — ” 

Manuel cut him sh&rt. “ To-morrow I ride to town,” 
he said. “ I will take the caballo back with me, if that 
pleases the senors. I will turn him loose near the 
Mission, and he will go to his stable. 


76 


THE GRINGOS 

“The senor,” he added, “was very brave. Madre 
de Dios! To run away with a prisoner of the Vigi- 
lantes! But they will surely kill the senor for that; 
the taking of the horse, that is nothing.” His teeth 
shone briefly under his black mustache. “ One can 
die but once,” he pointed out, and emphasized his 
meaning by a swift glance at Jack, moodily nibbling 
the edge of a corn cake. “ But if the horse does not 
please the senor — ” 

Dade caught his meaning and laughed a little over 
it. “ The horse,” he said, “ belongs to the Committee ; 
my friend does not.” 

“ Si, Senor — but surely that is true. Only — ” 
he stroked his crisp beard thoughtfully — “ the senors 
would better go to-morrow to the patron. There the 
gringos dare not come. In this poor hut the senors 
may not be safe — for we are but three poor vaqueros 
when all are here. We will do our best — ” 

“ Three vaqueros,” declared Dade with fine diplo- 
macy, “ as brave as the three who live here, would 
equal twenty of the Committee. But we will not let 
it come to that.” 

Manuel took the flattery with a glimpse of white 
teeth and a deprecatory wave of the hand, and himself 
qualified it modestly afterward. 

“With the knife — perhaps. But the gringos have 


HOSPITALITY 77 

guns which speak fast. Still, we would do our 
best — ” 

“ Say, if he ’s going back to town to-morrow,” spake 
J ack suddenly, from where he reclined in the shadow, 
“ why can’t I write a note to Bill Wilson and have him 
send down my guns? The Captain took them away, 
you know; but he won’t object to giving them back 
now ! ” His voice was bitter. 

“ The rest of them might. You seem to think that 
when you killed Perkins you wiped out the whole dele- 
gation — which you did n’t. What was the row about ; 
if you don’t mind telling me ? ” 

“ I thought you knew,” said Jack quite sincerely, 
which proved more than anything how absorbed he was 
in his own part in the affair. He shifted his head 
upon his clasped hands so that his eyes might rest upon 
the waning firelight, where the pot of frijoles, set back 
from supper, was still steaming languidly in the hot 
ashes. 

“ You started it yourself, two weeks ago,” he an- 
nounced whimsically, to lighten a little the somber 
tale. “ If you had n’t bought that white horse from 
that drunken Spaniard, I ’d be holding a handful of 
aces and kings to-night, most likely, in Bill Wilson’s 
place. And my legs would n’t be aching like the 
devil,” he added, reminded anew of his troubles, when 


78 THE GRINGOS 

he shifted his position. “ It ’s all your fault. You 
bought the horse.” 

Dade grinned and bent to hold a twig in the coals, 
that he might light a cigarette. “ All right, I ’m the 
guilty party. Let ’s have the consequences of my evil 
deed,” he advised, settling back on his heels and lower- 
ing an eyelid at Manuel in behalf of this humorous 
partner of his. 

“ You bought the horse and broke the Spaniard’s 
heart and ruined his temper. And he and Sandy had 
a fight, and — So,” he went on, after a two-minute 
break in the argument, “when I heard Swift sneering 
something about Sandy, last night, I rose up in meet- 
ing and told him and some others what I thought of ’em. 
I was not,” he explained, “ thinking nice thoughts at 
the time. You see, Perkins, since he got the lead, has 
gathered a mighty scaly bunch around him, and they ’ve 
been running things to suit themselves. 

“ Then, Swift and two or three others held up a 
boy from the mines to-day, and I happened to see it. 
I interfered ; fact is, I killed a couple of them. So they 
arrested both of us, went through a farce trial, and were 
trying to hurry me into Kingdom Come before Bill 
Wilson got a rescue party together, when you come 
along. That ’s all. They let the kid go — which was 
a good thing. I don’t think they ’ll be down here after 


HOSPITALITY 79 

me. In fact, I ’ve been thinking maybe I ’d go back, 
in a day or so, and have it out with them.” 

“ Yes, that ’s about what you ’d be thinking, all 
right,” retorted Dade unemotionally. “ Sounds per- 
fectly natural.” The tone of him, being unsympathetic, 
precipitated an argument which flung crisp English 
sentences back and forth across the cabin. Manuel, 
when the words grew strange and took on a harsh tang 
which to his ear meant anger, diplomatically sought his 
blankets and merged into the shadow of the corner 
farthest from the fire and nearest the door. The 
senors were pleased to disagree ; if they fought, he had 
but to dodge out into the night and neutrality. The 
duties of hospitality weighed hard upon Manuel during 
that half-hour or so. 

Dade’s cigarette stub, flung violently into the heart 
of the fire glow, seemed to Manuel a crucial point in 
the quarrel; he slipped back the blankets, ready to 
retreat at the first lunge of open warfare. He breathed 
relief, however, when Dade got up and stretched his 
arms to the dried tules overhead, and laughed a lazy 
surrender of the argument, if not of his opinion upon 
the subject. 

“ You ’re surely the most ambitious trouble-hunter 
I ever saw,” he said, returning to his habitual humorous 
drawl, with the twinkle in his eyes that went with it. 


80 THE GRINGOS 

“ Just the same, we ’ll not go back to the mine just yet. 
Till the dust settles, we ’re both better off down here 
with Don Andres Picardo. I don’t want to be hung for 
the company I keep. Besides — ” 

“ I ’ll bet ten ounces there ’s a senorita,” hazarded 
Jack maliciously. “ You ’re like Bill Wilson; but you 
can preach caution till your jaws ache; you can’t fool 
me into believing you ’re afraid to go back to the mine. 
Is there a senorita ? ” 

“ You shut up and go to sleep,” snapped Dade, and 
afterward would not speak at all. 

Manuel, in the shadow, frowned over the only words 
he understood — Don Andres Picardo and senorita. 
The senors were agreeable companions, and they were 
his guests. But they were gringos, after all. And if 
they should presume to lift desireful eyes to the little 
Senorita Teresa — Teresita, they called (her fondly 
who knew her — Manuel’s mustache lifted suddenly 
at one side at the bare possibility. 


CHAPTER VI 


THE VALLEY 

I N the valley of Santa Clara, which lies cradled 
easily between mountains and smiles up at the sun 
nearly the whole year through, Spring has a winter 
home, wherein she dwells contentedly while the north- 
ern land is locked in the chill embrace of the Snow 
King. In February, unless the north wind sweeps 
down jealously and stays her hand, she flings a golden 
brocade of poppies over the green hillsides and the 
lower slopes which the forest has left her. Time was 
when she spread a deep-piled carpet of mustard over 
the floor of the valley as well, and watched smiling 
while it grew thicker and higher and the lemon-yellow 
blossoms vied with the orange of the poppies, until 
the two set all the valley aglow. 

Now it was March, and the hillsides were ablaze 
with the poppies, and the valley floor was soft green 
and yellow to the knees ; with the great live oaks stand- 
ing grouped in stately calm, like a herd of gigantic, 
green elephants scattered over their feeding-ground and 


82 THE GRINGOS 

finding the peace of repletion with the coming of the 
sun. 

The cabin of Manuel squatted upon a little rise of 
ground at the head of the valley. When Jack stood 
in the doorway and looked down upon the green sweep 
of grazing ground with the hills behind, and farther 
away another range facing him, he owned to himself 
that it was good to be there. The squalidness of the 
town he had left so tumultuously struck upon his mem- 
ory nauseatingly. 

Spring was here in the valley, even though the 
mountains shone white beyond. A wind had come out 
of the south and driven the fog back to the bay, and 
the sun shone warmly down upon the land. Two robins 
sang exultantly in the higher branches of the oak, where 
they had breakfasted satisfyingly upon the first of the 
little, green worms that gave early promise of being 
a pest until such time as they stiffened and clung in- 
ertly, waiting for the dainty, gray wings to grow and 
set them aflutter over the tree upon which they had 
fed. One of them dropped upon Jack’s arm while he 
stood there and crawled aimlessly from the barren 
buckskin to his wrist. He flung it off mechanically. 
Spring was here of a truth; in the town he had not 
noticed her coming. 

u You ’re right, Dade,” he declared suddenly, over 


THE VALLEY 


83 


Lis shoulder. “ This beats getting up at noon and going 
through the motions of living for twelve or fourteen 
hours in town. I believe I ’ll have Manuel get me a 
riding outfit, if he will. Maybe I ’ll take you up on 
that rodeo proposition. Beckon your old don will give 
me a job ? ” 

“ Won’t cost a peso to find out,” said Dade, coming 
out and standing beside him in the sun. “ I ’ve been 
talking to Manuel, and he thinks we ’d better pull out 
right away. Valencia’s got an extra saddle here, and 
Manuel says he ’ll catch a horse for you.” 

“ I believe I ’ll send a letter to Bill,” proposed Jack. 
“ He ’ll give Manuel enough dust to buy what I need ; 
and I ought to let him know how we made out, any- 
way.” 

A blank leaf from the little memorandum book he 
always carried, and a bullet for pencil — perforce, the 
note was brief ; but it told what he wanted : gold to buy 
a riding outfit, his pistols which Perkins had taken 
from him, and news of Bill’s well-being. When the 
paper would hold no more and hold it legibly, he folded 
it carefully so that it would not smudge, and gave it 
to his host. 

“ What if the Committee catches you with that buck- 
skin, Manuel ? ” he asked abruptly. The risk Manuel 
would run had not before occurred to him. “ Dade, 


84 


THE GRINGOS 


he ’s liable to get into trouble, if they catch him with 
that horse ; let ’s turn the darned thing loose.” 

a Me, I shall not ride where the gringos will see 
me,” broke in Manuel briskly. “ The senors need not 
be alarmed. I shall keep away from El Camino Real. 
At the Mission I will buy what the senor desires, and 
I will bring it to him at the hacienda.” 

“ Get the best they ’ve got,” J ack adjured him. “ An 
outfit better than Dade’s, if you can find one. Bill 
Wilson has got about twelve hundred dollars of mine; 
get the best if it cleans the sack.” He grinned at Dade. 
“ If you ’re going to bully me into turning vaquero 
again, I ’m going to have the fun of riding in style, 
anyway. You’ve set the pace, you know. I never 
saw you so gaudy. Er — what did you say her name 
is?” 

“ I did n’t say.” 

“ Must be serious. Too bad.” Jack shook his head 
dolefully. “ Say, Manuel, do you know a good riata, 
when you see one lying around loose ? ” 

“ Si, Senor. Me, I have braided the riatas and 
bridles since I was so high.” Erom the height of his 
measuring hand from the beaten day beneath the oak, 
he proclaimed himself an infant prodigy; but Jack 
did not happen to be looking at him and so remained 
unamazed. 


THE VALLEY 


85 


“ Well, you ought to know something about them. 
Get the best riata you can find. I leave it to your 
judgment.” 

“ Si, Senor. To-morrow I will bring them to you.” 
He hesitated, his eyes dwelling curiously upon the cop- 
pery hair of this stranger, whose presence he was not 
quite sure that he did not resent vaguely. Dade he 
had come to accept as a man whose innate kindliness, 
which was as much a part of him as the blood in his 
veins, wiped out any stain of alien birth ; but this blue- 
eyed one — “ The senor himself is perhaps a judge 

of riatas ? ” he insinuated, politely veiling the quick 
jealousy of his nature. 

“ We-el-1 — you bring me one ready to fall all to 
pieces, and I reckon I could tell it was poor, after it 
had stranded.” 

Dade laughed. “ Judge of riatas ? You wait till 
you see him with one in his hand ! ” 

Manuel’s teeth shone briefly, but the smile did not 
come from his heart. “ Me, I shall surely bring the 
senor a riata worthy even of his skill,” he declared 
sententiously, as he walked away with his bridle slung 
over his arm and his back very straight. 

“ That sounded sarcastic,” commented Jack, looking 
after him. “ What ? s the matter ? Is the old fellow 
jealous ? ” 


86 


THE GRINGOS 


Dade flicked his cigarette against the trunk of the 
oak to remove the white crown of ashes, and shook his 
head. “ What of ? ” he asked bluntly. “ Half your 
trouble, Jack, comes from looking for it. Manuel’s 
a fine old fellow. I stayed a few days with him here 
when I first left town, and rode around with him. 
He ’s straight as the road to heaven, and I never heard 
him brag about anything, except the goodness of his 
‘ patron/ and the things some of his friends can do. 
I’ll have to ask you to saddle up for me, Jack; this 
arm of mine ’s pretty stiff and sore this morning. 
Watch how Surry ’s trained ! You would n’t believe 
some of the things he ’ll do.” 

He turned towards the horse, feeding knee-deep in 
grass and young mustard in the opening farther down 
the slope, and whistled a long, high note. The white 
head went up with a fling of the heavy mane, to perk 
ears forward at the sound. Then he turned and came 
towards them at a long, swinging walk that was a joy 
to behold. 

“ Do you know, I hate the way nature’s trimmed 
down the life of a horse to a few measly years,” said 
Dade. “ A good horse you can love like a human — 
and fifteen years is about as long as he can expect to 
live and amount to anything. Surry’s four now, by 
his teeth. In fifteen years I ’ll still be at my best; I ’ll 


THE VALLEY 


87 

want that horse like the very devil ; and he ’ll he dead 
of old age, if he lasts that long. And a turtle,” he 
added resentfully after a pause, “ lives hundreds of 
years, just because the darned things are n’t any good 
on earth ! ” 

“ Trade him for a camel,” drawled J ack unsym- 
pathetically. “ They ’re more durable.” 

“ Watch him come, now!” Dade gave three short, 
shrill whistles, and with a toss of head by way of an- 
swer, Surry came tearing up the slope, straight for his 
master. The shadow of the oak was all about him when 
he planted his front feet stiffly and stopped; flared his 
nostrils in a snort and, because Dade waved his hand 
to the right, wheeled that way, circled the oak at a 
pace which set his body aslant and stopped again quite 
as suddenly as before. Dade held out his hand, and 
Surry came up and rubbed the palm playfully with his 
soft muzzle. 

“ For a camel, did you say ? ” Dade grinned tri- 
umphantly at the other over the sleek back of his pet. 

“ What ’ll you take for him ? ” 

Dade pulled the heavy forelock straight with fingers 
that caressed with every touch. “ Jose Pacheco asked 
me that, and I came pretty near hitting him. I don’t 
reckon I ’ll ever be drunk enough to name a price. But 
I might — ” 


88 


THE GRINGOS 


Jack glanced at him, and saw that his lips were 
half parted in a smile born of some fancy of his own, 
and that his eyes were seeing dreams. Jack stared for 
a full minute before Dade’s thoughts jerked back to 
his surroundings. Dade was not a dreamer; or if he 
were, J ack had never had occasion to suspect him of it, 
and he wondered a little what it was that had sent Dade 
iDto dreams at that hour of the morning. But Manuel 
was returning, riding one pony and leading another; 
so Jack threw away his cigarette stub and picked up 
the saddle blanket. 

Manuel came up and saddled his mount silently, his 
deft fingers working mechanically while his black eyes 
stole sidelong looks at Jack saddling Surry, as if he 
would measure the man anew. While he was anathe- 
matizing the buckskin in language for which he would 
need to do a penance later on, if he confessed the blas- 
phemy to the padre, Jack threw Valencia’s saddle upon 
the little sorrel pony Manuel had led up for him to 
ride. 

“ Truly one would not like to die for having stolen 
such a beast,” stated Manuel earnestly, knotting a 
macarte around the neck of the buckskin. “ He is only 
fit to carry men to hangings. Come, accursed one! 
The Vigilantes are weeping for one so like themselves. 
Adios, Senors ! ” 


THE VALLEY 


8 <> 


He rode away, still heaping opprobrium upon the 
reluctant buckskin, and speedily he disappeared behind 
a clump of willows clothed in the pale green of new 
leaves. 

Dade dropped the bullock hide which served for a 
door, to signify that the master of the house was absent. 
Though the old don’s cattle might be butchered under 
his very nose, Manuel’s few belongings would not be 
molested, though only the dingy brown hide of a bull 
long since gone the way of all flesh barred the way; a 
week, one month or six the hut would stand inviolate 
from despoliation; for such was the unwritten law 
of a land where life was held cheaper than the things 
necessary to preserve life. 

On such a morning, when the air was like summer 
and all the birds were rehearsing most industriously 
their parts in the opening chorus with which Spring 
meant to celebrate her return to the northern land, a 
ride down the valley was pure joy to any man whose 
soul was tuned in harmony with the great outdoors; 
and trouble lagged and could not keep pace with the 
riders. 

Half-way down, they met Valencia, a slim young 
Spaniard with one of those amazing smiles that was 
like a flash of sunlight, what with his perfect teeth, 
his eyes that could almost laugh out loud, and a sunny 


90 


THE GRINGOS 


soul behind them. Valencia, having an appetite for 
acquiring wisdom of various kinds and qualities, knew 
some English and was not averse to making strangers 
aware of the accomplishment. 

Therefore, when the two greeted him in Spanish, he 
calmly replied : “ Hello, pardner,” and pulled up for 
a smoke. 

“ How you feel for my dam-close call to-morrow ? ” 
he wanted to know of Jack, when he learned his name. 

“ Pretty well. How did you know — ? ” began 
J ack, but the other cut him short. 

“ J ose, she heard on town. The patron, she ’s worry 
leetle. She ’s ’fraid for Senor Hunter be keel. Me, I 
ride to find for-sure.” Valencia dropped his match, 
and leaned negligently from the saddle and picked it 
out of the grass, his eyes stealing a look at the stranger 
as he came up. 

“ Good work,” commented Jack under his breath 
to Dade. But Valencia’s ears were keen for praise; he 
heard, and from that moment he was Jack’s friend. 

“ I borrowed your saddle, Valencia,” Jack an- 
nounced, meaning to promise a speedy return of it. 

“ Hot my saddle ; yours and mine, amigo,” amended 
Valencia quite simply and sincerely. “ Mine, she ’s 
yours also. You keep him.” While he smoked the 
little, corn-husk cigarette, he eyed with admiration the 


THE VALLEY 91 

copper-red hair upon which Manuel had looked with 
disfavor. 

Before they rode on and left him, his friendliness 
had stamped an agreeable impression upon Jack’s con- 
sciousness. He looked back approvingly at the som- 
breroed head bobbing along behind a clump of young 
manzanita just making ready to bloom daintily. 

“ I like that vaquero,” he stated emphatically. 
“ He ’s worth two of Manuel, to my notion.” 

“ Valencia? He ’s not half the man old Manuel is. 
He gambles worse than an Injun, and never has any- 
thing more than his riding outfit and the clothes on his 
back, they tell me. And he fights like a catamount 
when the notion strikes him; and it doesn’t seem to 
make much difference whether he ’s got an excuse or 
not. He’s a good deal like you, in that respect,” he 
added, with that perfect frankness which true friend- 
ship affects as a special privilege earned by its loyalty. 

“ Manuel ’s got tricky eyes,” countered Jack. “ He ’s 
the kind of Spaniard that will ‘ Si, Senor,’ while he ’s 
hitching his knife loose to get you in the back. I know 
the breed; I lived amongst ’em before I ever saw you. 
Valencia ’s the kind I ’d tie to.” 

“ And I was working with ’em when you were say- 
ing ‘ pitty horsey ! ’ My first job was with a Spanish 
outfit. A Mexican majordomo licked me into shape 


92 


THE GRINGOS 


-when I was sweet sixteen. And,” he clinched the ar- 
gument mercilessly, “ I was sixteen and drawing a 
man’s pay on rodeo when you wore your pants buttoned 
on to your waist ! ” 

“ And you don’t know anything yet ! ” J ack came 
back at him. Whereat they laughed and called a truce, 
which was the way of them. 


CHAPTER VII 


THE LORD OF THE VALLEY 

S CATTERED, grazing herds of wild, long-horned 
cattle that ran from their approach gave place to 
feeding mustangs with the mark of the saddle upon 
them. Later, an adobe wall confronted them ; and this 
they followed through a grove of great live oaks and 
up a grassy slope beyond, to where the long, low adobe 
house sat solidly upon a natural terrace, with the valley 
lying before and the hills at its back; a wide-armed, 
wide-porched, red-roofed adobe such as the Spanish 
aristocracy loved to build for themselves. The sun 
shone warmly upon the great, latticed porch, screened 
by the passion vines that hid one end completely from 
view. To the left, a wing stretched out generously, 
with windows curtained primly with some white stuff 
that flapped desultorily in the fitful breeze from the 
south. At the right, so close that they came near being 
a part of the main structure and helped to give the 
general effect of a hollow, open-sided square, stood a 
row of small adobe huts; two of them were tiled like 


94 THE GRINGOS 

the house, and the last, at the outer end, was thatched 
with tules. 

Into the immaculate patio thus formed before the 
porch, Dade led the way boldly, as one sure of his wel- 
come. Behind the vines a girl’s voice, speaking 
rapidly and softly with a laugh running all through 
the tones, hushed as suddenly as does a wild bird’s 
twitter when strange steps approach. And just as sud- 
denly did Dade’s nostrils flare with the quick breath 
he drew ; for tones, if one listens understanding^, may 
tell a great deal. Even Jack knew instinctively that a 
young man sat with the girl behind the vines. 

After the hush they heard the faint swish of feminine 
movement. She came and stood demurely at the top 
of the wide steps, a little hoop overflowing soft, white 
embroidered stuff in her hands. 

“ Welcome home, Senor Hunter,” she said, and made 
him a courtesy that was one-third politeness and the rest 
pure mockery. “ My father will be relieved in his mind 
when he sees you. I think he slept badly last night on 
your account.” 

Wistfulness was in Dade’s eyes when he looked at 
her; as though he wanted to ask if she also were re- 
lieved at seeing him. But there was the man behind 
the lattice where the vines were thickest ; the man who 
was young and whom she had found a pleasant com- 


LORD OF THE VALLEY 95 

panion. Also there was Jack, who was staring with 
perfect frankness, his eyes a full shade darker as he 
looked at her. And there was the peon scampering 
barefooted across from one of the huts to take their 
horses. Dade therefore confined himself to conven- 
tional phrases. 

“ Senorita, let me present to you my friend, Jack 
Allen,” he said. “ Jack, this is the Senorita Teresa 
Picardo.” 

His nostrils widened again when he looked casually 
at Jack; for Jack’s sombrero was swept down to his 
knees in salute — though it was not that; it was the 
look in his face that sent Dade’s glance seeking Teresita’s 
eyes for answer. 

But Teresita only showed him how effectively black 
lashes contrast with the faint flush of cheeks just hint- 
ing at dimples, and he got no answer there. 

She made another little courtesy, lifting her lashes 
unexpectedly for a swift glance at Jack, as he dis- 
mounted hastily and went up two steps, his hand out- 
stretched to her. 

“ We Americanos like to shake hands upon a new 
friendship,” he said boldly. 

The senorita laughed a little, changed her embroid- 
ery hoop from her right hand to her left, laid her fin- 
gers in his palm, blushed when his hand closed upon 


96 


THE GRINGOS 

them eagerly, and laughed again when her gold thimble 
slipped and rolled tinkling down the steps. 

Dade picked the thimble out of a matted corner of 
a violet bed, and returned it to her unsmilingly; got 
a flash of her eyes and a little nod for his reward, and 
stood back, waiting her further pleasure. 

“ You have had adventures, Senor, since yesterday 
morning,” she said to him lightly. “ Truly, you 
Americanos do very wonderful things! Jose, here is 
Senor Hunter and his friend whom he stole away from 
the Vigilantes yesterday! Did you have the invisible 
cap, Senor ? It was truly a miracle such as the padres 
tell of, that the blessed saints performed in the books. 
Jose told us what he heard — but when I have called 
my mother, you yourself must tell us every little bit 
of it.” 

While she was talking she was also pulling forward 
two of the easiest chairs, playing the hostess prettily 
and stealing a lash-hidden glance now and then at the 
tall senor with such blue eyes and hair the like of which 
she had never seen, and the mouth curved like the lips 
of a woman. 

The young man whom she addressed as Jose rose 
negligently and greeted them punctiliously ; seated him- 
self again, picked up a guitar and strummed a minor 
chord lazily. 


LORD OF THE VALLEY 97 

“Don Andres is busy at the corrals,” Jose volun- 
teered, when the girl had gone. “ He will return soon. 
You had a disagreeable experience, Senor % One of my 
vaqueros heard the story in town. There was a rumor 
that the Vigilantes were sending out parties to search 
for you when Carlos started home. Senor Allen is 
lucky to get off so easily.” 

Jack held a match unlighted in his fingers while 
he studied the face of Jose. The tone of him had 
jarred, but his features were wiped clean of any ex- 
pression save faint boredom; and his fingers, plucking 
a plaintive fragment of a fandango from the strings, 
belied the sarcasm Jack had suspected. Don Andres 
himself, at that moment coming eagerly across from the 
hut at the end of the row, saved the necessity of reply- 
ing. 

“ Welcome home, amigo mio ! ” cried the don, hurry- 
ing up the steps, sombrero in hand. “ Never has sight 
of a horse pleased me as when Diego led yours to the 
stable. Thrice welcome — since you bring your friend 
to honor my poor household with his presence.” 

No need to measure guardedly those tones, or 
that manner. Don Andres Picardo was as clean, as 
honest, and as kindly as the sunshine that mellowed the 
dim distances behind him. The two came to their feet 
unconsciously and received his handclasp with inner 


98 THE GRINGOS 

humility. Don Andres held Dade’s hand a shade 
longer than the most gracious hospitality demanded, 
while his eyes dwelt solicitously upon his face, browned 
near to the shade of a native son of those western 
slopes. 

“ I heard of your brave deed, Senor — of how you 
rode into the midst of the Vigilantes and snatched your 
friend from under the very shadow of the oak. I did 
not hear that you escaped their vengeance afterwards, 
and I feared greatly lest harm had befallen you. 
Dios! It was gallantly done, like a knight of olden 
times — ” 

“ Oh, no. I did n’t rescue any lady, Don Andres. 
Just Jack — and he was in a fair way to rescue him- 
self, by the way. It was n’t anything much, but I 
suppose the story did grow pretty big by the time it 
got to you.” 

“ And does your friend also call it a little thing ? ” 
The don turned quizzically to Jack. 

“ He does not,” J ack returned promptly, although 
his ears were listening attentively for a nearer approach 
of the girl-voice he heard within the house. “ He calls 
it one of the big things Dade is always doing for his 
friends.” He dropped a hand on Dade’s shoulder and 
shook him with an affectionate make-believe of dis- 
favor. “ He ’s always risking his valuable neck to save 


LORD OF THE VALLEY 99 


my worthless one, Don Andres. He means well, but 
he does n’t know any better. He packed me out of a 
nest of Indians once, just as foolishly; we were coming 
out from Texas at the time. You ’d he amazed at some 
of the things I could tell you about him — ” 

“ And about himself, if he would,” drawled Dade. 
“ If he ever tells you about the Indian scrape, Don 
Andres, ask him how he happened to get into the nest. 
As to yesterday, perhaps you heard how it came that 
J ack got so close to the oak ! ” 

“ Ho — I heard merely of the danger you were in. 
Jose’s head vaquero was in town when the Vigilantes 
returned with their Captain and those others, and there 
were many rumors. This morning I sent Valencia to 
learn the truth, and if you were in danger — Perhaps 
I could have done little, but I should have tried to save 
you,” he added simply. “ I should not like a clash 
with the gringos — pardon, Senors ; I speak of the class 
whom you also despise.” 

Jose laughed and swept the strings harshly with his 
thumb. “ The clash will come, Don Andres, whether 
you like it or not,” he said. “ This morning I saw 
one more unasked tenant on your meadow, near the 
grove of alders. What they call a 1 prairie schooner.’ 
A big, red-topped homhre, and his woman — gringos 
of the class I despise ; which includes ” — again he 


100 THE GRINGOS 

flung his thumb across the guitar string — “ all grin- 
gos ! ” 

Jack’s lips opened for hot answer, but Don Andres 
forestalled him quietly. 

u One more tenant does not harm me, Jose. When 
the American government puts its seal upon the seal 
of Spain and restores my land to me, these unasked 
tenants will go the way they came. There will be no 
clash.” But he sighed even while he made the state- 
ment, as if the subject were neither new nor pleasant 
to dwell upon. 

“ Why,” demanded Jose bitterly, “ should the 
Americanos presume to question our right to our 
land ? You and my father made the valley what it is ; 
your shiploads of hides and tallow that you sent from 
Yerba Buena made the town prosper, and called ad- 
venturers this way; and now they steal your cattle and 
lands, and their government is the biggest thief of all, 
for it tells them to steal more. They will make you 
poor, Don Andres, while you wait for them to be just. 
No, I permit no ‘ prairie schooner 9 to stop, even that 
their oxen may drink. My vaqueros ride beside them 
till they have crossed the boundary. You, Don Andres, 
if you would permit your vaqueros to do likewise, in- 
stead of shaking hands with the gringos and bidding 
them welcome — ” 


LORD OF THE VALLEY 101 

“ But I do not permit it ; nor do I seek counsel from 
the children I have tossed on my foot to the tune of 
a nursery rhyme.” He shook his white-crowned head 
reprovingly. “ He was always screaming at his duenna, 
one child that I recollect,” he smiled. 

“ Art thou scolding Jose again, my Andres ? He 
loves to play that thou and Teresita are children still, 
Jose ; it serves to beguile him into forgetting the years 
upon his head ! Welcome, Sehors. Teresita but told 
me this moment that you had come. She is bringing 
the wine — ” 

On their feet they greeted the Senora Picardo. Like 
the don, her husband, honest friendliness was in her 
voice, her smile, the warm clasp of her plump hand. 
The sort of woman who will mother you at sight, was 
the senora. Purple silk — hastily put on for the guests, 
one might suspect — clothed her royally. Golden 
hoops hung from her ears, a diamond brooch held to- 
gether the lace beneath her cushiony chin; a comfort- 
able woman who smiled much, talked much and wor- 
ried more lest she leave some little thing undone for 
those about her. 

“ And this is the poor senor who was in such dread- 
ful danger ! ” she went on commiseratingly. “ Ah, the 
wicked times that have come upon us! Presently we 
shall fear to sleep in our beds — Senor Hunter, you 


102 THE GRINGOS 

have been hurt ! The mark of blood is on your sleeve, 
the stain is on your side ! A-ah, my poor friend ! Come 
instantly and I will — ” 

“ Gracias, Senora ; it is nothing. Besides, Manuel 
put on a poultice of herbs. It ’s only a scratch, but it 
bled a little while I rode to the hut of Manuel.” If 
blushes could have shown through the tan, Dade might 
have looked as uncomfortable as he felt at that moment. 

The senorita was already in the doorway, convoying 
a sloe-eyed maid who bore wine and glasses upon a 
tray of beaten silver ; and the smile of the senorita was 
disturbing to a degree, brief though it was. 

Behind the wine came cakes, and the senorita pointed 
tragically to the silver dish that held them. “ Madre 
mi a, those terrible children of Margarita have stolen 
half the cakes ! I ran after them in the orchard — but 
they swallow fast, those ninos! Now the senors must 
starve ! ” 

Up went the hand of the senora in dismay, and down 
went the head of the senorita to hide how she was biting 
the laughter from her lips. “ I ran,” she murmured 
pathetically, “ and I caught Angelo — but at that mo- 
ment he popped the cake into his mouth and it was 
gone ! Then I ran after Maria — and she swal- 
lowed — ” 

“ Teresita mia ! The senors will think — ” 


LORD OF THE VALLEY 103 

What they would think she did not stipulate, but her 
eyes implored them to judge leniently the irrepressi- 
bility of her beautiful one. There were cakes sufficient 
— a hasty glance reassured her upon that point — and 
Teresita was in one of her mischievous moods. The 
mother who had reared her sighed resignedly and 
poured the wine into the small glasses with a quaint 
design cut into their sides, perfectly unconscious of 
the good the little diversion had done. 

For a half-hour there was peaceful converse; of the 
adventure which had brought the two gringos to the 
ranch as to a sanctuary, of the land which lay before 
them, and of the unsettled conditions that filled the days 
with violence. 

Jose still strummed softly upon the guitar, a pleasant 
undertone to the voices. And because he said very little, 
he saw and thought the more ; seeing glances and smiles 
between a strange man and the maid whom he loved 
desirefully, bred the thought which culminated in a sud- 
den burst of speech against the gringos who had come 
into the peaceful land and brought with them strife. 
Who stole the cattle of the natives, calmly appropriated 
the choicest bits of valley land without so much as a 
by-your-leave, and who treated the rightful owners with 
contempt and as though they had no right to live in 
the valley where they were born. 


104 


THE GRINGOS 

“ Last week,” he went on hotly, “ an evil gringo 
with the clay of his burrowings still upon his garments 
cursed me and called me greaser because I did not give 
him all the road for his burro. I, Jose Pacheco! They 
had better have a care, or the ‘ greasers ’ will drive 
them back whence they came, like the cattle they are. 
When I, a don, must give the road to a gringo lower 
than the peons whom I flog for less impertinence, it 
is time we ceased taking them by the hand as though 
they were our equals ! ” His eyes went accusingly to 
the face of the girl. 

She flung up her head and met the challenge in her 
own way, which was with the knife-thrust of her light 
laughter. “ Ah, the poor Americanos ! Not the prayers 
of all the padres can save them from the blackness of 
their fate, since Don Jose Pacheco frowns and will 
not take their hand in friendship ! How they will gnash 
the teeth when they hear the terrible tidings — Jose 
Pacheco, don and son of a don, will have none of them, 
nor will he give way to their poor burros on the high- 
way ! ” She shook her head as she had done over the 
tragedy of the little cakes. “ Pobre gringos ! Pobre 
gringos ! ” she murmured mockingly. 

“ Children, have done ! ” The hand of the senora 
went chidingly to the shoulder of her incorrigible 
daughter. “ This is foolish and unseemly — though 


LORD OF THE VALLEY 105 

all thy quarreling is that, the saints know well. Our 
guests are Americanos ; our guests, who are our friends,” 
she stated gently, looking at Jose. “ Not all Spaniards 
are good, Jose; not all gringos are bad. They are as 
we are, good and bad together. Speak not like a child, 
amigo mio.” 

The guitar which Jose flung down upon a broad stool 
beside him hummed resonant accompaniment to his 
footsteps as he left the veranda. “ Thy house, Senora, 
has been as my mother’s house since I can remember. 
Until thy gringo guests have made room for me, I 
leave it ! ” 

“ Senor Allen, would you like to see my birds ? ” 
invited Teresita wickedly, her glance flicking scorn- 
fully the reproachful face of Jose, as he turned it to- 
wards her, and dwelling with a smile upon Jack. 

u Wicked one ! ” murmured the senora, in her heart 
more than half approving the discipline. 

Jose had humiliation as well as much bitterness to 
carry away with him; for he saw the senor with the 
bright blue eyes follow gladly the laughing Teresita 
to her rose garden, and as he went jingling across the 
patio without waiting to summon a peon to bring him 
his horse, he heard the voice of Don Andres making 
apology to Dade for the rudeness of him, Jose. 


CHAPTER VIII 


DON ANDRES WANTS A MAJORDOMO 

“pENOR, those things which you desired that I 
^3 should bring, I have brought. All is of the 
best. Also have I brought a letter from the Senor 
Weelson, and what remains of the gold the senor will 
find laid carefully in the midst of his clothing. So 
I have done all as it would have been done for the 
patron himself.” In the downward sweep of Manuel’s 
sombrero one might read that peculiar quality of irony 
which dislike loves to inject into formal courtesy. 

Behind Manuel waited a peon burdened with elegant 
riding gear and a bundle of clothing, and a gesture 
brought him forward to deposit his load upon the porch 
before the gringo guest, whose “ Gracias ” Manuel 
waved into nothingness; as did the quick shrug dis- 
dain the little bag of gold which Jack drew from his 
pocket and would have tossed to Manuel for reward. 

“ It was nothing,” he smiled remotely ; and went his 
way to find the patron and deliver to him a message 
from a friend. 


A MAJORDOMO WANTED 107 

Behind Jack came the click of slipper-heels upon 
the hardwood; and he turned from staring, puzzled, 
after the stiff-necked Manuel, and gave the girl a smile 
such as a man reserves for the woman who has entered 
into his dreams. 

“ Santa Maria, what elegance ! Now will the senor 
ride in splendor that will dazzle the eyes to look 
upon ! ” Teresita bantered, poking a slipper-toe tenta- 
tively towards the saddle, and clasping her hands in 
mock rapture. “ On every corner, silver crescents ; on 
the tapideros, silver stars bigger than Venus; riding 
behind the cantle, a whole milky way; Jose wi 7 l surely 
go mad with rage when he sees. Stars has Jose, hut 
no moon to bear him company when he rides. Surely 
the cattle will fall upon their knees when the senor 
draws near ! ” 

“ Shall we ride out and put them to the test ? ” he 
asked wishfully, shaking out the bridle to show the 
beautiful design of silver inlaid upon the leather cheek- 
piece, and stooping to adjust a big-roweled, silver-in- 
crusted spur upon his boot-heel. “ Manuel does exactly 
as he is told. I said he was to get the best he could 
find — ” 

“ And so no vaquero in the valley will be so gor- 
geous — ” She broke off suddenly to sing in lilting 
Spanish a fragment of some old song that told of 


108 THE GRINGOS 

the lilies of the field that “ Toil not, neither do they 
spin.” 

“ That is not kind. I may not spin, but I toil — 
I leave it to Dade if I don’t.” This last, because he 
caught sight of Dade coming across from the row of 
huts, which was a short cut up from the corrals. “ And 
I can show you the remains of blisters — ” He held 
out a very nice appearing palm towards her, and looked 
his fill at her pretty face, while she bent her brows and 
inspected the hand with the gravity that threatened to 
break at any instant into laughter. 

That sickening grip in the chest which is a real, 
physical pain, though the hurt be given to the soul of 
a man, slowed Dade’s steps to a lagging advance to- 
wards the tableau the two made on the steps. So had 
the senorita sent him dizzy with desire (and with hope 
to brighten it) in the two weeks and more that he had 
been the honored guest. So had she laughed and 
teased him and mocked him; and he had believed that 
to him alone would she show the sweet whimsies of her 
nature. But from the moment when he laid her gold 
thimble in her waiting hand and got no reward save 
an absent little nod of thanks, the dull ache had been 
growing in his heart. He knew what it was that had 
sent J ose off in that headlong rage against all gringos ; 
though two days before he would have said that Jose’s 


A MAJORDOMO WANTED 109 

jealousy was for him, and with good reason. There 
had been glances between those two who stood now so 
close together — 6wift measuring of the weapons which 
sex uses against sex, with quick smiles when the 
glances chanced to meet. Jose also had seen the byplay ; 
and the fire had smoldered in his eyes until at last 
it kindled into flame and drove him cursing from the 
place. In his heart Dade could not blame Jose. 

Forgotten while Teresita held hack with one hand 
a black lock which the wind was trying to fling across 
her eyes, and murmured mocking commiseration over 
the half obliterated callouses on Jack’s hand, Dade 
loitered across the patio, remembering many things 
whose very sweetness made the present hurt more bit- 
ter. He might have known it would be like this, he 
told himself sternly ; but life during the past two weeks 
had been too sweet for forebodings or for precaution. 
He had wanted Jack to see and admire Teresita, with 
the same impulse that would have made him want to 
show Jack any other treasure which Chance held out 
to him while Hope smiled over her shoulder and whis- 
pered that it was his. 

Well, Jack had seen her, and Jack surely admired 
her; and the grim humor of Dade’s plight struck 
through the ache and made him laugh, even though his 
jaws immediately went together with a click of teeth 


/ 


110 THE GRINGOS 

and cut the laugh short. He might have known — but 
he was not the sort of man who stands guard against 
friend and foe alike. 

And, he owned to himself, Jack was unconscious of 
any hurt for his friend in this rather transparent woo- 
ing. A little thought would have enlightened him, per- 
haps, or a little observation ; but Dade could not blame 
Jack for not seeking for some obstacle in the path of 
his desires. 

“ She says 1 ’m lazy and got these callouses grabbing 
the soft snaps last summer in the mines/’ Jack called 
lightly, when finally it occurred to him that the world 
held more than two persons. “ I ’m always getting the 
worst of it when you and I are compared. But I be- 
lieve I ’ve got the best of you on riding outfit, old man. 
Take a look at that saddle, will you ! And these spurs ! 
And this bridle ! The senorita says the cattle will fall 
on their knees when I ride past ; we ’re going to take 
a gallop and find out. Want to come along?” 

“ Arrogant one ! The senorita did not agree to that 
ride! The senorita has something better to do than 
bask in the glory of so gorgeous a senor while he in- 
dulges his vanity — and frightens the poor cattle so 
that, if they yield their hides at killing time, there 
will be little tallow for the ships to carry away ! ” 

The Senorita Teresita would surely never be guilty of 


A MAJORDOMO WANTED 111 

a conscious lowering of one eyelid to point her raillery, 
but the little twist she gave to her lips when she looked 
at Dade offered a fair substitute; and the flirt of her 
silken skirts as she turned to run hack into the house 
was sufficient excuse for any imbecility in a man. 

Jack looked after her with some chagrin. “ The 
little minx! A man might as well put up his hands 
when he hears her coming — huh ? Unless he ’s ab- 
solutely woman-proof, like you. How do you manage 
it, anyway ? ” 

“ By taking a squint at myself in the looking-glass 
every morning.” Dade’s face managed to wrinkle 
humorously. “ H-m. You are pretty gorgeous, for a 
fact. Where ’s the riata ? ” 

Jack had forgotten that he had ever wanted one. He 
lifted the heavy, high-cantled saddle, flung it down 
upon the other side and untied the new coil of braided 
rawhide from its place on the right fork. 

“ A six-strand, eh ? I could tell Manuel a few things 
about riatas, if he calls that the best! Four strands 
are stronger than six, any time. I ’ve seen too many 
stranded — ” 

“ The senor is not pleased with the riata ? ” 

Manuel, following Don Andres across to the veranda, 
had caught the gesture and tone; and while his knowl- 
edge of English was extremely sketchy, he knew six 


112 THE GRINGOS 

and four when he heard those numerals mentioned, and 
the rest was easy guessing. 

“ The four strands are good, but the six are better 
— when Joaquin Murieta lays the strands. From the 
hide of a very old bull was this riata cut; perhaps the 
sehor is aware that the hide is thus of the same thick- 
ness throughout and strong as the bull that grew it. 
Not one strand is laid tighter than the other strand; 
the wildest hull in the valley could not break it — if 
the sehor should please to catch him ! Me, I could have 
bought three riatas for the gold I gave for this one; 
but the sehor told me to get the best.” His shoulders 
went up an inch, though Don Andres was frowning at 
the tone of him. “ The sehor can return it to the Mis- 
sion and get the three, or he can exchange it with any 
vaquero in the valley for one which has four strands. 
I am very sorry that the sehor is not pleased with my 
choice.” 

“ You need n’t be sorry. It *s a very pretty riata, 
and I have no doubt it will do all I ask of it. The 
saddle ’s a beauty, and the bridle and spurs — I ’m a 
thousand times obliged.” 

“ It is nothing and less than nothing,” disclaimed 
Manuel once more; and went in to ask the senora for 
a most palatable decoction whose chief ingredient was 
blackberry wine, which the senora recommended to all 


A MAJORDOMO WANTED 113 


and sundry for various ailments. Though Manuel, the 
deceitful one, had no ailment, he did have a keen ap- 
preciation of the flavor of the cordial, and his medicine 
bottle was never long empty — or full — if he could 
help it. 

A moment later Jack, hearing a human, feminine 
twitter from the direction of the rose garden, left off 
examining pridefully his belongings, and bolted with- 
out apology, after his usual headlong fashion. 

Don Andres sat him down in an easy-chair in the 
sun, and sighed as he did so. “ He is hot-tempered, 
that vaquero,” he said regretfully, his mind upon 
Manuel. “ Something has stirred his blood ; surely 
your friend has done nothing to offend him ? ” 

“ Nothing except remark that he has always liked 
a four-strand riata better than six. At the hut he was 
friendly enough.” 

“ He is not the only one whose anger is easily stirred 
against the gringos,” remarked the don, reaching me- 
chanically for his tobacco pouch, while he watched 
Dade absently examining the new riata. 

“Senor Hunter,” Don Andres began suddenly, 
“have you decided what you will do? Your mine in 
the mountains — it will be foolish to return there while 
the hands of the Vigilantes are reaching out to clutch 
you; do you not think so? More of the tale I have 


114 


THE GRINGOS 


heard from Valencia, who returned with Manuel. 
Those men who died at the hand of your friend — and 
died justly, I am convinced — had friends who would 
give much for close sight of you both.” 

“ I know; I told Jack we ? d have to keep away from 
town or the mine for a while. He wanted to go right 
back and finish up the fight ! ” Dade grinned at the 
absurdity. “ I sat down hard on that proposition.” 
Not that phrase, exactly, did he use. One may be par- 
doned a free translation, since, though he spoke in ex- 
cellent Spanish, he did not twist his sentences like a 
native, and he was not averse to making use of cer- 
tain idioms quite as striking in their way as our own 
Americanisms. 

Don Andres rolled a cigarette and smoked it thought- 
fully. u You were wise. Also, I bear in mind your 
statement that you could not long be content to remain 
my guest. Terribly independent and energetic are you 
Americanos.” He smoked through another pause, 
while Dade’s puzzled glance dwelt secretly upon his 
face and tried to read what lay in his mind. It seemed 
to him that the don was working his way carefully up 
to a polite hint that the visit might be agreeably ter- 
minated; and his uneasy thoughts went to the girl. 
Did her father resent — 

“ My majordomo,” the don continued, just in time 


A MAJORDOMO WANTED 115 


to hold back Dade’s hasty assurance that they would 
leave immediately, “my majordomo does not please 
me. Many faults might I name, sufficient to make 
plain my need for another.” A longer wait, as if time 
were indeed infinite, and he owned it all. “ Also I 
might name reasons for my choice of another, who is 
yourself, Senor Hunter. Perhaps in you I recognize 
simply the qualities which I desire my majordomo to 
possess. Perhaps also I desire that some prejudiced 
countrymen of mine shall be taught a lesson and made 
to see that not all Americanos are unworthy. However 
that may be, I shall he truly glad if you will accept. 
The salary we will arrange as pleases you, and your 
friend will, I hope, remain in whatever capacity you 
may desire. Further, when your government has given 
some legal assurance that my land is mine,” he smiled 
wrily at the necessity for such assurance, “ as much 
land as you Americanos call a ‘ section/ choose it 
where you will — except that it shall not take my 
house or my cultivated land — shall be yours for the 
taking.” 

“ But — ” 

“ Not so much the offer of a position would I have 
you consider it,” interrupted the other with the first 
hint of haste he had shown, “ as a favor that I would 
ask. Times are changing, and we natives are high- 


116 THE GRINGOS 

chested and must learn to make room for others who 
are coming amongst us. To speak praises to the 
face of a friend is not my habit, yet I will say that 
I would teach my people to respect good men, what- 
ever the race; and especially Americanos, who will be 
our neighbors henceforth. I shall be greatly pleased 
when you tell me that you will be my majordomo; 
more than ever one needs a man of intelligence and 
tact — ” 

“ And are none of our own people tactful or intelli- 
gent, Don Andres Picardo ? ” demanded Manuel, hav- 
ing overheard the last sentence or two from the door- 
way. He came out and stood before his beloved 
“ patron/’ his whole fat body quivering with amazed 
indignation, so that the bottle which the senora had 
filled for him shook in his hand. “ Amongst the grin- 
gos must you go to find one worthy? Truly it is as 
Don J ose tells me ; these gringos have come but to make 
trouble where all was peace. To-day he told me all 
his thoughts, and me, I hardly believed it was as he 
said. Would the patron have a majordomo who knows 
nothing of rodeos, nothing of the cattle — ” 

“ You ’re mistaken there, Manuel,” Dade broke in 
calmly. “ Whether I become majordomo or not, I know 
cattle. They have a few in Texas, where I came from. 
I can qualify in cowology any time. And,” he added 


A MAJORDOMO WANTED 117 

loyally, “ so can Jack. You thought he didn’t know 
what he was talking about, when he was looking at 
that riata ; but I ’ll back him against any man in Cali- 
fornia when it comes to riding and roping. 

“ But that need n’t make us bad friends, Manuel. I 
did n’t come to make trouble, and I won’t stay to make 
any. We ’ve been friends ; let ’s stay that way. I ’m 
a gringo, all right, but I ’ve lived more with your peo- 
ple than my own, and if you want the truth, I don’t 
know but what I feel more at home with them. And 
the same with Jack. We’ve eaten and slept with 
Spaniards and worked with them and played with them, 
half our lives.” 

“ Still it is as Jose says,” reiterated Manuel stub- 
bornly. “ Till the gringos came all was well ; when 
they came, trouble came also. Till the gringos came, 
no watch was put over the cattle, for only those who 
hungered killed and ate. Now they steal the patron’s 
cattle by hundreds, they steal his land, and if Jose 
speaks truly, they would steal also — ” He hesitated 
to speak what was on his tongue, and finished lamely: 
“ what is more precious still. 

“ And the patron will have a gringo for major- 
domo ? ” He returned to the issue. “ Then I, Manuel, 
must leave the patron’s employ. I and half the 
vaqueros. The patron,” he added with what came close 


118 


THE GRINGOS 


to a sneer, “ had best seek gringo vaqueros — with the 
clay of the mines on their boots, and their red shirts 
to call the hulls ! ” 

“ I shall do what it pleases me to do,” declared the 
don sternly. “ Advice from my vaqueros I do not seek. 
And you,” he said haughtily, “ have choice of two 
things; you may crave pardon for your insolence to 
my guest, who is also my friend, and who will hence- 
forth have charge of my vaqueros and my cattle, or 
you may go whither you will; to Don Jose Pacheco, I 
doubt not.” 

He leaned his white-crowned head against the high 
chair-back, and while he waited for ManuePs decision 
he gazed calmly at the border of red tiles which showed 
at the low eaves of the porch — calmly as to features 
only, for his eyes held the blaze of anger. 

“ Senors, I go.” The brim of ManuePs sombrero 
flicked the dust of the patio. 

“ Come, then, and I will reckon your wage,” invited 
the don, coldly courteous as to a stranger. “ You will 
excuse me, Senor ? I shall not be long.” 

Dade’s impulse was to protest, to intercede, to say 
that he and Jack would go immediately, rather than 
stir up strife. But he had served a stern apprentice- 
ship in life, and he knew it was too late now to put 
out the fires of wrath burning hotly in the hearts of 


A MAJORDOMO WANTED 119 


those two ; however completely he might efface himself, 
the resentment was too keen, the quarrel too fresh to 
he so easily forgotten. 

He was standing irresolutely on the steps when Jack 
came back from the rose garden, whistling softly an 
old love-song and smiling fatuously to himself. 

u We ’re going to take that ride, after all,” he an- 
nounced gleefully. “ Want to come along? She’s 
going to ask her father to come, too — says it would 
be terribly improper for us two to ride alone. What ’s 
the matter ? Got the toothache ? ” 

Dade straightened himself automatically after the 
slap on the back that was like a cuff from a she-bear, 
and grunted an uncivil sentence. 

“ Come over to the saddle-house,” he commanded 
afterward. “ And take that truck off the senora’s front 
steps before she sees it and has a fit. I want to talk 
to you.” 

“ Oh, Lord! ” wailed Jack, under his breath, but he 
shouldered the heavy saddle obediently, leaving Dade 
to bring what remained. “ Cut it short, then ; she ’s 
gone to dress and ask her dad ; and I ’m supposed to 
order the horses and get you started. What ’s the 
trouble ? ” 

Dade first went over to the steps before their sleep- 
ing-room and deposited Jack’s personal belongings; and 


120 


THE GRINGOS 


Jack seized the minute of grace to call a peon and 
order the horses saddled. 

He turned from watching proudly the glitter of the 
trimmings on his new saddle as the peon bore it away 
on his shoulder, and confronted Dade with a tinge of 
defiance in his manner. 

“ Well, what have I done now ? ” he challenged. 
“ Anything particularly damnable about talking five 
minutes to a girl in plain sight of her — ” 

Dade threw out both hands in a gesture of impa- 
tience. “ That is n’t the only important thing in the 
world,” he pointed out sarcastically. If the inner hurt 
served to sharpen his voice, he did not know it. “ Don 
Andres wants to make me his majordomo.” 

Jack’s eyes bulged a little; and if Dade had not 
wisely side-stepped he would have received another one 
of Jack’s muscle-tingling slaps on the shoulder. 
“ Whee-ee ! Say, you ’re getting appreciated, at last, 
old man. Good for you! Give me a job? ” 

“ I ’m not going to take it,” said Dade. “ I was 
going to ask you if you want to pull out with me 
to-morrow.” 

Jack’s jaw went slack. “ Hot going to take it ! ” He 
leaned against the adobe wall behind him and stuck 
both hands savagely into his pockets. “ Why, you 
darned chump, how long ago was it that you talked 


A MAJORDOMO WANTED 121 


yourself black in the face, trying to make me say I ’d 
stay ? Argued like a man trying to sell shaving soap ; 
swore that nobody but a born idiot would think of 
passing up such a chance ; badgered me into giving in ; 
and now when you ’ve got a chance like this, you — 
Say, you ’re loco ! ” 

“ Maybe.” Dade’s eyes went involuntarily toward 
the veranda, where Teresita appeared for an instant, 
looking questioningly towards them. “ Maybe I am 
loco. But Manuel’s mad because the don offered me 
the place, and has quit; and he says half the vaqueros 
w T ill leave, that they won’t work under a gringo.” 

Jack’s indignant eyes changed to a queer, curious 
stare. “Dade Hunter! If I didn’t know you, if I 
had n’t seen you in more tight places than I ’ve got 
fingers and toes, I’d say — But you aren’t scared; 
you never had sense enough to be afraid of anything 
in your life. You can’t choke that down me, old man. 
What ’s the real reason why you want to leave % ” 

The real reason came again to the doorway sixty 
feet away and looked out impatiently to where the 
senors were talking so earnestly and privately ; but 
Dade would have died several different and unpleasant 
deaths before he would name that reason. Instead : 

“ It will be mighty disagreeable for Don Andres, try- 
ing to keep things smooth,” he said. “ And it is n’t as 


122 


THE GRINGOS 


if he were stuck for a majordomo. Manuel has turned 
against me from pure jealousy. He opened his heart, 
one night when we were alone together, and told me 
that when Carlos Pacorra went — and Manuel said the 
patron would not keep him long, for his insolence — he, 
Manuel, would he majordomo. He ’s mad as the deuce, 
and I don’t blame him ; and he ’s a good man for the 
place; the vaqueros like him.” 

“ You say he ’s quit ? 99 

“ Yes. He got pretty nasty, and the don has gone to 
pay him off.” 

“ Well, what good would it do for you to turn down 
the offer, then ? Manuel would n’t get it, would he ? ” 

“ No-o, he would n’t.” 

“ Well, then — oh, thunder! Something ought to 
he done for that ingrowing modesty of yours ! Dade, 
if you pass up that place, I ’ll — I ’ll swear you ’re 
crazy. I know you like it, here. You worked hard 
enough to convert me to that belief ! ” 

A sudden thought made him draw a long breath; 
he reached out and caught Dade by both shoulders. 

“ Say, you can’t fool me a little bit ! You ’re back- 
ing up because you ’re afraid I may be jealous or some- 
thing. You ’re afraid you ’re standing in my light. 
Darn you, I ’ve had enough of that blamed unselfishness 
of yours, old man.” The endearing smile lighted his 


A MAJORDOMO WANTED 123 


face then and his eyes. “ You go ahead and take the 
job, Dade. I don’t want it. I ’ll be more than con- 
tent to have you boss me around.” He hesitated, look- 
ing at the other a bit wistfully. “ Of course, you know 
that if you go, old boy, I ’ll go with you. But — ” 
The look he sent towards Teresita, who appeared 
definitely upon the porch and stood waiting openly and 
impatiently, amply finished the sentence. 

Dade’s eyes followed Jack’s understandingly, and 
the thing he had meant to do seemed all at once con- 
temptible, selfish, and weak. He had meant to leave 
and take J ack with him, because it hurt him mightily 
to see those two falling in love with each other. The 
trouble his staying might bring to Don Andres was 
nothing more nor less than a subterfuge. If Teresita’s 
smiles had continued to be given to him as they had 
been before Jack came, he told himself bitterly, he 
would never have thought of going. And Jack thought 
he hesitated from pure unselfishness ! The fingers that 
groped mechanically for his tobacco, though he had no 
intention of smoking just them, trembled noticeably. 

“ All right,” he said quietly. “ I ’ll stay, then.” 
And a moment after : “ Go ask her if she wants to ride 
Surry. I promised her she could, next time she rode.” 


CHAPTER IX 


JERRY SIMPSON, SQUATTER 

T HE senorita, it would seem, had lost interest in 
the white horse as well as in his master. That was 
the construction which Dade pessimistically put upon 
her smiling assurance that she could never be so selfish 
as to take Senor Hunter’s wonderful Surry and con- 
demn him to some commonplace caballo; though she 
gave also a better reason than that, which was that her 
own horse was already saddled — witness the peon 
leading the animal into the patio at that very moment 
— and that an exchange would mean delay. Dade took 
both reasons smilingly, and mentally made a vow with 
a fearsome penalty attached to the breaking of it. After 
which he felt a little more of a man, with his pride to 
hear him company. 

Manuel came out from the room which Don Andres 
used for an office, saluted the senorita with the air of a 
permanent leave-taking, as well as a greeting, and 
passed the gringos with face averted. A moment later 
the don followed him with the look of one who would 


JERRY SIMPSON, SQUATTER 125 

dismiss a distasteful business from bis mind; and 
entered amiably into the pleasure-seeking spirit of the 
ride. 

With the March sun warm upon them when they rode 
out from the wide shade of the oaks, they faced the 
cooling little breeze which blew out of the south. 

u V alencia tells me that the prairie schooner which 
Jose spoke of has of a truth cast anchor upon my land,” 
observed the don to Dade, reining in beside him where 
he rode a little in advance of the others. “ Since we 
are riding that way, we may as well see the fellow and 
make him aware of the fact that he is trespassing upon 
land which belongs to another ; though if he has halted 
but to rest his cattle and himself, he is welcome. But 
Valencia tells me that the fellow is cutting down trees 
for a house, and that I do not like.” 

“ Some emigrants seem to think, because they have 
traveled over so much wilderness, there is no land west 
of the Mississippi that they have n’t a perfect right to 
take, if it suits them. They are a little like your 
countryman Columbus, I suppose. Every man who 
crosses the desert feels as if he ’s out on a voyage of 
discovery to a new world; and when he does strike 
California, it’s hard for him to realize that he can’t 
take what he wants of it.” 

“ I think you are right,” admitted Don Andres after 


126 


THE GRINGOS 


a minute. “ And your government also seems to believe 
it has come into possession of a wilderness, peopled 
only by savages who must give way to the march of 
civilization. Whereas we Spaniards were in posses- 
sion of the land while yet your colonies paid tribute to 
their king in England, and we ourselves have brought 
the savages to the ways of Christian people, and have 
for our reward the homes which we have built with 
much toil and some hardships, like yourselves when 
your colonies were young. Twenty-one years have I 
looked upon this valley and called it mine, with the 
word of his Majesty for my authority! And surely 
my right to it is as the right of your people to their 
haciendas in Virginia or Vermont. Yet men will drive 
their prairie schooners to a spot which pleases them 
and say : ‘ Here, I will have this place for my home. , 
That is not lawful, or right.” 

Ten steps in the rear of them Teresita was laughing 
her mocking little laugh that still had in it a madden- 
ing note of tenderness. Dade tried not to hear it; for 
so had she laughed at him, a week ago, and set his 
blood leaping towards his heart. He was not skilled in 
the ways of women, yet he did not accuse her of de- 
liberate coquetry, as a man is prone to do under the 
smart of a hurt like his; for he sensed dimly that it 
was but the seeking sex-instinct of healthy youth that 


JERRY SIMPSON, SQUATTER 127 

brightened her eyes and sent the laugh to her lips when 
she faced a man who pleased her ; and if she were fickle, 
it was with the instinctive fickleness of one who has 
not made final choice of a mate. Hope lifted its head 
at that, but he crushed it sternly into the dust again; 
for the man who rode behind was his friend, whom he 
loved. 

It is to be feared that the voice of the girl held more 
of his attention than the complaint of the don, just 
then, and that the sting of injustice under which Don 
Andres squirmed seemed less poignant and vital than 
the hurt he himself was bearing. He answered him at 
random; and he might have betrayed his inattention 
if they had not at that moment caught sight of the 
interlopers. 

Valencia had not borne false witness against them; 
the emigrants were indeed cutting down trees. More, 
they were industriously hauling the logs to the imme- 
diate vicinity of their camp, which was chosen with 
an eye to many advantages ; shade, water, a broad view 
of the valley and plenty of open grass land already fit 
for the plow, if to plow were their intention. 

A loose-jointed giant of a man seated upon the load 
of logs which two yoke of great, meek-eyed oxen had 
just drawn up beside a waiting pile of their fellows, 
waited phlegmatically their approach. A woman, all 


128 


THE GRINGOS 


personality hidden beneath flapping calico and slat sun- 
bonnet, climbed hastily down upon the farther side of 
the wagon and disappeared into the little tent that was 
simply the wagon-box with its canvas covering, placed 
upon the ground. 

“ Valencia told me truly. Senor Hunter, will you 
speak for me? Tell the big hombre that the land is 
mine.” 

To do his bidding, Dade flicked the reins upon 
Surry’s neck and rode ahead, the others closely follow- 
ing. Thirty feet from the wagon a great dog of the 
color called brindle disputed his advance with bristling 
hair and throaty grumble. 

“ Lay down, Tige ! Wait till you ’re asked to take 
a holt,” advised the man on the wagon, regarding the 
group with an air of perfect neutrality. Tige obey- 
ing sullenly, to the extent that he crouched where he 
was and still growled; his master rested his elbows on 
his great, bony knees, sucked at a short-stemmed clay 
pipe and waited developments. 

“ How d’yuh do ? ” Dade, holding Surry as close to 
the belligerent Tige as was wise, tried to make his 
greeting as neutral as the attitude of the other. 

“ Tol’ble, thank yuh, how ’s y’self ? Shet your trap, 
Tige ! Tige thought you was all greasers, and he ain’t 
made up his mind yet whether he likes ’em mixed — 


JERRY SIMPSON, SQUATTER 129 

whites and greasers. I dunno’s I blame ’im, either. 
We ain’t either of us had much call to hanker after the 
dark meat. T’ other day a hunch come boilin’ up outa 
the dim distance like they was sent fur and did n’t have 
much time to git here. Tied their tongues into hard 
knots tryin’ to tell me somethin’ I did n t have time to 
listen to, and looked like they wanted to see my hide 
hangin’ on a fence. 

“ Tige, he did n’t take to ’em much. He kept walkin’ 
back and forth between me and them, talking as sensi- 
ble as they did, I must say, and makin’ his meanin’ 
full as clear. I dunno how we ’d all ’a’ come out, if I 
had n’t brought Jemimy and the twins out and let ’em 
into the argument. Them greasers did n’t like the looks 
of old Jemimy, and they backed off. Tige, he f offered 
’em right up, and soon ’s they got outa reach of 
Jemimy, they took down their lariats an’ tried to 
hitch onto him. 

“ They did n’t know Tige. That thar dawg ’s the 
quickest dawg on earth. He hopped through their 
loops like they was playin’ jump-the-rope with him. 
Fact is, he ’d learned jump-the-rope when he was a 
purp. He would n’t ’a’ minded that, only they did n’t 
do it friendly. One feller whipped out his knife and 
throwed it at Tige — and he come mighty nigh 
makin’ dawg-meat outa him, too. Slit his ear, it come 


130 


THE GRINGOS 


that close. Tige ain’t got no likin’ fer greasers sence 
then. He thought you was another bunch — and so 
did I. Mary, she put inside after Jemimy and the 
twins. 

“ Know anything about them greasers ? I see yuh 
got a sample along. T’ other crowd was headed by a 
slim feller all tricked up in velvet and silver braid and 
red sash; called himself Don Jose Pacheco, and claimed 
to own all Ameriky from the ocean over there, back to 
the Allegheny Mountains, near as I could make out. 
I don’t talk that kinda talk much; but I been thinkin’ 
mebby I better get m’ tongue split, so I can. Might 
come handy, some time; only Tige, he hates the sound 
of it like he hates porkypines — or badgers. 

“ Mary and me and Tige laid up in Los Angeles 
fer a spell, resting the cattle. All greasers, down there 
— and fleas — and take the two t’gether, they jest 
about wore out the hull kit and b’ilin’ of us. 

“ What ’s pesterin’ the ole feller ? Pears like he ’s 
gittin’ his tongue twisted up ready to talk — if they 
call it talkin’.” 

“ What is the hombre saying ? ” asked the don at 
that moment, seeing the glance and sensing that at last 
his presence was noticed. 

Dade grinned and winked at J ack, who, by the way, 
was neither looking nor listening; for Teresita was 


JERRY SIMPSON, SQUATTER 131 

once more tenderly ridiculing ids star-incrusted saddle 
and so claimed his whole attention. 

“ He says Jose Pacheco and some others came and 
ordered him off. They were pretty ugly, but he called 
out a lady — the Senora Jemima and dos ninos — 
and — ” 

“ Sa-ay, mister/’ interrupted the giant Jerry Simp- 
son from the load of logs. “ D’ you say Senory 
Jemimy % ” 

“ Why, yes. Senora means madame, or — ” 

“ Ya’as, I know what it means. Jemimy, mister, 
ain’t no senory, nor no madame. Jemimy ’s my old 
Kentucky rifle, mister. And the twins ain’t no neenos, 
but a brace uh pistols that can shoot fur as it ’s re- 
spectable fer a pistol to shoot, and hit all it ’s lawful 
to hit. You tell him who Jemimy is, mister; and tell 
’im she ’s a derned good talker, and most convincin’ in 
a argyment.” 

“ He says Jemima is not a senora,” translated Dade, 
his eyes twinkling, “ but his rifle ; and the ninos are 
his pistols.” 

Don Andres hid a smile under his white mustache. 
“ Very good. Yet I think your language must lack 
expression, Senor Hunter. It required much speech to 
say so little.” There was a twinkle in his own eyes. 
“ Also, Jose acts -like a fool. You may tell the big 


132 THE GRINGOS 

senor that the land is mine, hut that I do not desire 
to use harsh methods, nor have ill-feeling between us. 
It is my wish to live in harmony with all men; my 
choice of a majordomo should bear witness that I look 
upon Americanos with a friendly eye. I think the big 
hombre is honest and intelligent ; his face rather pleases 
me. So you may tell him that Jose shall not trouble 
him again, and that I shall not dispute with him about 
his remaining here, if to remain should be his purpose 
when he knows the land belongs to me. But I shall 
look upon him as a guest. As a guest, he will be wel- 
come until such time as he may find some free land 
upon which to build his casa.” 

Because the speech was kindly and just, and because 
he was in the service of the don, Dade translated as 
nearly verbatim as the two languages would permit. 
And Jerry Simpson, while he listened, gave several hard 
pulls with his lips upon the short stem of his pipe, dis- 
covered that there was no fire there, straightened his 
long leg and felt gropingly for a match in the depth 
of a great pocket in his trousers. His eyes, of that in- 
determinate color which may be either gray, hazel, or 
green, as the light and his moofi may affect them, 
measured the don calmly, dispassionately, unawed ; 
measured also Dade and the beautiful white horse he 
rode; and finally went twinkling over Jack and the 


JERRY SIMPSON, SQUATTER 133 

girl, standing a little apart, wholly absorbed in triviali- 
ties that could interest no one save themselves. 

“ How much land does he say belongs to him ? And 
whar did he git his title to it ? ” Jerry Simpson asked, 
when Dade was waiting for his answer. 

Out of his own knowledge Dade told him. 

Jerry Simpson brought two matches from his pocket, 
inspected them gravely and returned one carefully; 
lighted the other with the same care, applied the flame 
to his tobacco, made sure that the pipe was going to 
“ draw ” well, blew out the match, and tucked the stub 
down out of sight in a crease in the bark of the log 
upon which he was sitting. After that he rested his 
elbows upon his great, bony knees and smoked medita- 
tively. 


CHAPTEK X 


THE FINEST LITTLE WOMAN IN THE WORLD 

* 6 '\/ r 0^ Mr. Picardy that I ain’t visitin’ no- 
JL body, so he need n’t consider that I ’m com- 
pany,” announced Jerry, after a wait that was begin- 
ning to rasp the nerves of his visitors. “ I come here 
to live ! He ’s called this land hisn, by authority uh 
the king uh Spain, you say, for over twenty year. Wall, 
in twenty year he ain’t set so much as a fence-post fur 
as the eye can see. I been five mile from here on every 
side, and I don’t see no signs of his ever usin’ the land 
fer nothin’. JSTow, mebby the king uh Spain knew 
what he was talkin’ about when he give this land away, 
and then agin mebby he did n’t. ’T any rate, I don’t 
know as I think much of a king that ’ll give away a hull 
great gob uh land he never seen, and give it to one fel- 
ler — more ’n that feller could use in a hull lifetime ; 
more ’n he would ever need fer his young ’uns, even 
s’posin’ he had a couple uh dozen — which ain’t 
skurcely respectable fer one man, nohow. How many’s 
he got, mister ? ” 


THE FINEST WOMAN 135 

“ One — his daughter, over there.” 

“ Hum-mh ! Wall, she ain’t goin’ to need so demed 
much. You tell Mr. Picardy I ’ve come a long way& 
to find a home fer Mary and me; a long road and a 
hard road. I can’t go no further without I swim fer 
it, and that I don’t calc’late on doin’. I ain’t the kind 
to hog more land ’n what I can use — not mentionin' 
no names; hut I calc’late on havin’ what I need, if I 
can get it honest. My old mother used to read outa the 
Bible that the earth was the Lord’s and the fullness 
thereof; and I ain’t never heard of him handin’ over 
two-thirds of it to any king uh Spain. What he ’s 
snoopin’ around in Ameriky fur, givin’ away great big 
patches uh country he never seen, I ain’t askin’. Cali* 
forny belongs to the United States of Ameriky, and the 
United States of Ameriky lets her citizens make homes 
for themselves and their families on land that ain’t al- 
ready in use. If Mr. Picardy can show me a deed from 
Gawd Almighty, signed, sealed, and delivered along 
about the time Moses got hisn fer the Land uh Canyan, 
or if he can show a paper from Uncle Sam, sayin’ this 
place belongs to him, I ’ll throw off these logs, h’ist 
the box back on the wagon and look further ; but I ain’t 
goin’ to move on the say-so uh no furrin’ king, which 
I don’t believe in nohow.” 

He took the pipe from his mouth, and with it pointed 


136 


THE GRINGOS 


to a spot twenty feet away, so that they all looked to- 
wards the place. 

“ Eight thar,” he stated slowly, “ is whar I ’m goin’ 
to build my cabin, fer me and Mary. And right over 
thar I ’m goin’ to plow me up a truck patch. I ’m a 
peaceable man, mister. I don’t aim to have no fussin’ 
with my neighbors. But you tell Mr. Picardy that 
thar ’ll be loopholes cut on all four sides uh that thar 
cabin, and Jemimy and the twins ’ll be ready to argy 
with anybody that comes moochin’ around unfriendly. 
I ’m the peaceablest man you ever seen, but when I 
make up my mind to a thing, I ’m firm ! Pur-ty tol’- 
able firm ! ” he added with complacent emphasis. 

He waited expectantly while Dade put a revised 
version of this speech into Spanish, and placidly smoked 
his little black pipe while the don made answer. 

“ Already I find that I have done well to choose an 
Americano for my majordomo,” Don Andres observed, 
a smile in his eyes. “ With a few more such as this 
great hombre, who is firm and peaceful together, I 
should find my days full of trouble with a hot-blooded 
Manuel to deal with them. But with you, Senor, I have 
no fear. Something there is in the face of this Senor 
Seem’son which pleases me; we shall be friends, and 
he shall stay and plant his garden and build his house 
where it pleases him to do. You may tell him that I 


THE FINEST WOMAN 137 

say so, and that I shall rely upon his honor to pay me 
for the land a reasonable price when the American 
government places its seal beside the seal on his 
Majesty’s grant. For that it will be done I am very 
sure. The land is mine, even though I have no tablet 
of stone to proclaim from the Creator my right to call 
it so. But he shall have his home if he is honest, with- 
out swimming across the ocean to find it.” 

“ Wall, now, that ’s fair enough fer anybody. Hey, 
Mary! Come on out and git acquainted with yer 
neighbor’s girl. Likely-lookin’ young woman,” he 
passed judgment, nodding towards Teresita. “ Skittish, 
mebby — young blood most gen’rally is, when there ’s 
any ginger in it. What ’s yer name, mister ? I want 
yuh all to meet the finest little woman in the world — 
Mrs. Jerry Simpson. We’ve pulled in the harness to- 
gether fer twelve year, now, so I guess I know ! 
Come out, Mary.” 

She came shyly from the makeshift tent, her dingy 
brown sunbonnet in her hand, and the redoubtable Tige 
walking close to her shapeless brown skirt. And al- 
though her face was tanned nearly as brown as her 
bonnet, with the desert sun and desert winds of that 
long, weary journey in search of a home, it was as 
delicately modeled as that of the girl who rode for- 
ward to greet her; and sweet with the sweetness of 


138 


THE GRINGOS 


soul which made that big man worship her. Her hair 
was a soft gold such as one sees sometimes upon the 
head of a child or in the pictures of angels, and it was 
cut short and curled in distracting little rings about 
her head, and framed softly her smooth forehead. Her 
eyes were brown and soft and wistful — with a twinkle 
at the corners, nevertheless, which brightened them 
wonderfully; and although her mouth drooped slightly 
with the same wistfulness, a little smile lurked there 
also, as though her life had been spent largely in long- 
ing for the unattainable, and in laughing at herself 
because she knew the futility of the longing. 

“ I hope you ’ve taken a good look at J erry’s face,” 
she said, “ and seen that he ain’t half as bad as he tries 
to make out. Jerry ’ll make a fine neighbor for any 
man if he ’s let be ; and we do want a home of our own, 
awful bad ! We was ten years paying for a little farm 
back in Illinois, and then we lost it at the last minute 
because there was something wrong with the deed, and 
we did n’t have any money to go to law about it. Jerry 
did n’t tell you that ; but it ’s that makes him talk kinda 
bitter, sometimes. He was terrible disappointed about 
losing the farm. And when we took what we had left 
and struck out, he said he was going as far as he could 
get and be away from lawyers and law, and make us a 
home on land that nobody but the Lord laid any claim to. 



Mrs. Jerry took the seiiorita’s hand and smiled up 
at her. Page 139. 


















N S- 

























i. 


















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THE FINEST WOMAN 139 

So he picked out this place ; and then along come that 
Spaniard and a lot of fellows with him and said we 
had n’t no right here. So I hope you won’t blame 
Jerry for being a little mite uppish. That Spaniard 
got him kinda wrought up.” 

Her voice was as soft as her eyes, and winsome as 
her wistful little smile. She had those four smiling 
with her in sheer sympathy before she had spoken three 
sentences; and the two who did not understand her 
Words smiled just as sympathetically as the two who 
knew what she was talking about. 

“ Tell the senora I am sorry, and she shall stay ; 
and my mother will give her hens and a bottle of her 
very good medicine, which Manuel drinks so greedily,” 
Teresita cried, when Dade told her what the woman 
said, and leaned impulsively and held out her hand. 
“ I would do as the Americanos do, and shake the hands 
for a new friendship,” she explained, blushing a little. 
“ We shall be friends. Senor Hunter, tell the pretty 
senora that I say we shall be friends. Amiga mi a, I 
shall call her, and I shall learn the Americano language, 
that we may talk together.” 

She meant every word of it, Dade knew; and with 
a troublesome, squeezed feeling in his throat he in- 
terpreted her speech with painstaking exactness. 

Mrs. Jerry took the senorita’s hand and smiled up 


140 


THE GRINGOS 


at her with the brightness of tears in her eyes. “ You We 
got lots of friends, honey, : ” she said simply, “ and I ’ve 
left all of mine so far behind me they might as well 
be dead, as far as ever seeing ’em again is concerned; 
so it ’s like finding gold to find a woman friend away 
out here. I ain’t casting no reflections on J erry, mind,” 
she hastened to warn them, blinking the tears away and 
leaving the twinkle in full possession ; u but good as he 
is, and satisfying as his company is, he ain’t a woman. 
And, my dear, a woman does get awful hungry some- 
times for woman-talk ! ” 

“ Santa Maria ! that must be true. She shall come 
and let my mother be her friend also. I will send a 
carriage, or if she can ride — ask the big senor if he has 
no horses ! ” 

Jack it was who took up right willingly the burden 
of translation, for the pure pleasure of repeating the 
senorita’s words and doing her a service; and Dade 
dropped back beside the don, where he thought he be- 
longed, and stayed there. 

“ Wall, I ain’t got any horses, but I got two of the 
derndest mules you ever seen, mister. Moll and Poll ’s 
good as any mustang in this valley. Mary and me can 
ride ’em anywheres ; that ’s why I brung ’em along, 
to ride in case we had to eat the cattle.” 

“ Then they must surely ride Moll and Poll to visit 


THE FINEST WOMAN 141 

m y mother ! ” the senorita declared with her customary 
decisiveness. “ Padre mio ! ” 

Obediently the don accepted the responsibility laid 
upon him by his sole-born who ruled him without ques- 
tion, and made official the invitation. It was not what 
he had expected to do; he was not quite sure that it 
was what he wanted to do; but he did it, and did it 
with the courtliness which would have flowered his in- 
vitation to the governor to honor his poor household 
by his presence; he did it because his daughter had 
glanced at him and said “ My father ? ” in a certain 
tone which he knew well. 

Something else was done, which no one had expected 
to do when the four galloped up to the trespassers. 
Jaek and Dade dismounted and helped Jerry unload 
the logs from the wagon, for one thing; while Teresita 
inspected Mrs. Jerry’s ingenious domestic makeshifts 
and managed somehow, with Mrs. Jerry’s help, to make 
the bond of mutual liking serve very well in the place 
of intelligible speech. Por another, the don fairly com- 
mitted himself to the promise of a peon or two to help 
in the further devastation of the trees upon the Picardo 
mountain slope behind the little, natural meadow, which 
Jerry Simpson had so calmly appropriated to his own 
use. 

“ He is honest,” Don Andres asserted more than once 


142 


THE GRINGOS 


on the ride home, perhaps in self -justification for his 
soft dealing. “ He is honest ; and when he sees that the 
land is mine, he will pay ; or if he does not pay, he will 
go — and tilled acres and a cabin will not harm me. 
Valencia, if he marries the daughter of Carlos (as the 
senora says will come to pass), will be glad to have a 
cabin to live in apart from the mother of his wife, 
who is a shrew and will he disquieting in any man’s 
household. Therefore, Senor Hunter, you may order 
the peons to assist the big hombre and his beautiful 
senora, that they may soon have a hut to shelter them 
from the rains. It is not good to see so gentle a 
woman endure hardship within my boundary. Many 
tules, they will need,” he added after a minute, “ and 
it is unlikely that the Senor Seem’son understands the 
making of a thatch. Diego and Juan are skillful; and 
the tules they lay upon a roof will let no drop of rain 
fall within the room. Order them to assist.” 

“ I shall tell Margarita to bake many little cakes,” 
cried Teresita, riding up between her father and Dade, 
that she might assist in the planning. “ And madre 
mia will give me coffee and sugar for the pretty senora. 
So soft is her voice, like one of my pigeons ! And her 
hair is more beautiful than the golden hair of our 
Elessed Lady at Dolores. Oh, if the Blessed Virgin 
would make me as beautiful as she, and as gentle, I 


THE FINEST WOMAN 143 

should — I should finish the altar cloth immediately, 
which I began two years ago ! ” 

“ Thou art well enough as thou art,” comforted her 
father, trying to hide his pride in her under frowning 
brows, and to sterilize the praise with a tone of be- 
littlement. 

“ I love that pretty senora,” sighed Teresita, turn- 
ing in the saddle to glance wistfully back at the meager 
little camp. “ She shall have the black puppy Rosa gave 
me when last I was at the Mission San J ose. “ But 
I hope,” she added plaintively, like the child she was 
at heart, “ she will make that big, ugly beast they 
called Tige be kind to her; and the milk must be warm 
to the finger when Chico is fed. To-night, Senor Allen, 
you shall teach me Americano words that I may say to 
the senora what is necessary, for the happiness of my 
black puppy. I must learn to say that her name is 
Chico, and that the milk must be warm to the finger, 
and that the big dog must be kind.” 


CHAPTER XI 


AN ILL WIND 


WIHD rose in the night, blowing straight out 



JLjL of the north ; a wind so chill that the senora un- 
packed extra blankets and distributed them lavishly 
amongst the beds of her household, and the oldest peon 
at the hacienda (who was Gustavo and a prophet more 
infallible than Elijah) stared into the heavens until 
his neck went lame; and predicted much cold, so that 
the frost would surely kill the fruit blossoms on the 
slope behind the house; and after that much rain. 

Don Andres, believing him implicitly, repeated the 
warning to Dade; and Dade, because that was now his 
business, rode here and there, giving orders to the 
peons and making sure that all would be snug when 
the storm broke. 

The Senorita Teresa, bethinking her of the “ pretty 
senora ” who would have scant shelter in that canvas- 
topped wagon-box, even though it had been set under 
the thickest branches of a great live oak, called guard- 
edly to Diego who was passing, and ordered Tejon, her 


145 


AN ILL WIND 

swiftest little mustang, saddled and held ready for her 
behind the last hut, where it could not be seen from the 
house. 

Tejon, so named by his mistress because he was gray 
like a badger, hated wind, which the senorita knew well. 
Also, when the hatred grew into rebellion, it needed a 
strong hand indeed to control him, if the mood seized 
him to run. But the senorita was in a perverse mood, 
and none but Tejon would she ride; even though — or 
perhaps because — she knew that his temper would he 
uncertain. 

She wanted to beg the pretty Senora Simpson to 
come and stay with them until the weather cleared and 
the cabin was finished. But more than that she wanted 
to punish Senor Jack Allen for laughing when she tried 
to speak the Americano sentence he had taught her the 
night before, and got it all backwards. Senor Jack 
would be frightened, perhaps, when he learned that she 
had ridden away alone upon Tejon ; he would ride after 
her — perhaps. And she would not talk to him when 
he found her, hut would be absolutely implacable in 
her displeasure, so that he would he speedily reduced 
to the most abject humility. 

Diego, when she ran stealthily across the patio, her 
riding-habit flapping about her feet in the wind, looked 
at her uneasily as if he would like to remonstrate ; but 


146 


THE GRINGOS 


being a mere peon, he bent silently and held his calloused, 
brown palm for the senorita’ s foot ; reverently straight- 
ened the flapping skirt when she was mounted, and sent 
a hasty prayer to whatever saint might be counted upon 
to watch most carefully over a foolish little Spanish 
girl. 

“ An evil spirit is in the caballo to-day,” Diego fi- 
nally ventured to inform his mistress gravely. “ For a 
week he has not felt the weight of saddle, and he loves 
not the trees which sway and sing, or the wind whistling 
in his ears.” 

“ And for that he pleases me much,” retorted the 
senorita, and touched Tejon with her spurred heel, so 
that he came near upsetting Diego with the lunge he 
gave. 

When the peon recovered his balance, he stood braced 
against the wind, and with both hands held his hat 
upon his head while he watched her flying down the 
slope and out of sight amongst the trees. No girl 
in all the valley rode better than the Senorita Teresa 
Picardo, and Diego knew it well and boasted of it to 
the peons of other hacendados; but for all that he was 
ill-at-ease, and when, ten minutes later, he came upon 
Valencia at the stable, he told him of the madness of 
the senorita. 

“ Tejon she would ride, and none other ; and to-day 


AN ILL WIND 


147 


he is a devil. Twice he would have bitten my shoulder 
while I was saddling, and that is the sign that his heart 
is full of wickedness. Me, I would have put the freno 
Chilene (Chilian bit) in his mouth — but that would 
start him bucking ; for he hates it because then he can- 
not run.” 

Valencia, a little later, met the new majordomo and 
repeated what Diego had said; and Dade, catching a 
little of the uneasiness and yet not wanting to frighten 
the girl’s father with the tale, made it his immediate 
business to find Jack and tell him that Teresita had 
ridden away alone upon a horse that neither Diego nor 
Valencia considered safe. 

Jack, at first declaring that he wouldn’t go where 
he plainly was not wanted, at the end of an uncomfort- 
able half-hour borrowed Surry, because he was fleet 
as any mustang in the valley, and rode after her. 

In this wise did circumstances and Jack obey the 
piqued desire of the senorita. 

After the first headlong half mile, Tejon became the 
perfect little saddle-pony which fair weather found 
him; and Teresita, cheated of her battle of wills and 
yet too honest to provoke him deliberately, began to 
think a little less of her own whims and more of the 
Senora Simpson, housed miserably beneath the canvas 
covering of the prairie schooner. 


148 


THE GRINGOS 


She found Mrs. Jerry sitting inside, with a patch- 
work quilt over her shoulders, her eyes holding a shade 
more of wistfulness and less twinkle, perhaps, but with 
her lips quite ready to smile upon her visitor. Teresita 
sat down upon a box and curiously watched the pretty 
senora try to make a small, triangular piece of cloth 
cover a large, irregular hole in the elbow of the big 
senor’s coat sleeve. Sometimes, when she turned it so, 
the hole was nearly covered — except that there was 
the frayed rent at the bottom still grinning maliciously 
up at the mender. 

“ ‘ Patch beside patch is neighborly, but patch upon 
patch is beggarly ! ’ ” quoted Mrs. Jerry, at the moment 
forgetting that the girl could not understand. 

Whereupon Teresita bethought her of her last night’s 
lesson, and replied slowly and solemnly: “My dear 
Mrs. Seem’ son, how — do — you — doV ’ 

“ Mrs. Seem’son,” realizing the underlying friendli- 
ness of the carefully enunciated greeting, flushed with 
pleasure and for a minute forgot all about the patch 
problem. 

“ Why, honey, you ’ve been learnin’ English jest so ’s 
you can talk to me ! ” She leaned and kissed the girl 
where the red blood of youth dyed brightest the Latin 
duskiness of the cheek. “ I wish ’t you could say some 
more. Can’t you ? ” 


AN ILL WIND 149 

Teresita could ; but her further store of American 
words related chiefly to the diet and general well-being 
of one very small and very black pup, which was at that 
moment sleeping luxuriously in the chimney corner at 
home; and without the pup the words would be no 
more than parrot-chattering. So the seiiorita shook her 
head and smiled, and Mrs. Jerry went back to the 
problem of the small patch and the large hole. 

Hampered thus by having no common language be- 
tween them, Teresita failed absolutely to accomplish 
her mission. 

Mrs. Jerry, hazily guessing at the invitation without 
realizing any urgent need of immediate acceptance, 
shook her head and pointed to her pitifully few house- 
hold appurtenances, and tried to make it plain that she 
had duties which kept her there in the little camp 
which she pathetically called home. 

Teresita gathered that the pretty senora did not wish 
to leave that great, gaunt hombre who was her hus- 
band. So, when she could no longer conceal her shiver- 
ings, and having no hope that the big senor would 
understand her any better when he returned with the 
load of logs he and the peons were after, she rose 
and prepared to depart. Surely the Senor Jack, If he 
were going to follow, would by this time be coming, 
aud the hope rather hastened her adieu. 


1 50 


THE GRINGOS 


“ Adios, amiga mia,” she said, her eyes innocently 
turning from the Senora Simpson to scan stealthily the 
northern slope. 

“ Good-by, honey. Come again and see me. J errv 
knows a few Spanish words, and I ’ll make him learn 
’em to me so I can talk a little of your kind, next time. 
And tell your mother I ’m obliged for the wine ; and 
them dried peaches tasted fine, after being without so 
long. Shan’t I hold your horse while you git on? 
Seems to me he ’s pretty frisky for a girl to he riding ; 
but I guess you ’re equal to him ! ” 

Teresita smiled vaguely. She had no idea of what 
the woman was saying, and she was beginning to wish 
that she had not tried in just this way to punish the 
Senor Jack; if he were here now, he could make the 
Senora Simpson understand that the storm would he a 
very dreadful one — else Gustavo was a liar, and whom 
should one believe? 

Even while she was coaxing Tejon alongside a log 
and persuading him to stand so until she was in the 
saddle, she was generously forswearing Senor Jack’s 
punishment that she might serve the pretty senora who 
had Tejon by the bit and was talking to him softly in 
words he had never heard before in his life. She re- 
solved that if she met Senor Jack, she would ask him 
to come back with her and explain to the senora about 


AN ILL WIND 151 

the cold and the rain, and urge her to accept the hos- 
pitality of her neighbors. 

For that reason she looked more anxiously than be- 
fore for some sign of him riding towards her through 
the fields of flowering mustard that heaved in the wind 
like the waves on some strange, lemon-colored sea toss- 
ing between high, green islands of oak and willow. 
Surely that fool Diego would never keep the still 
tongue! He would tell, when some one missed her. 
If he did not, or if Senor Allen was an obstinate pig 
of a man and would not come, then she would tell 
Senor Hunter, who was always so kind, though not so 
handsome as the other, perhaps. 

Senor Hunter’s eyes were brown — and she had 
looked into brown eyes all her life. But the blue! 
The blue eyes that could so quickly change lighter or 
darker that they bewildered one; and could smile, or 
light flames that could wither the soul of one. 

Even the best rider among the Spanish girls as far 
south as Paso Robles should not meditate so deeply 
upon the color of a senor’s eyes that she forgets the 
horse she is riding, especially when the horse is Tejon, 
whose heart is full of wickedness. 

A coyote, stalking the new-made nest of a quail, 
leaped out of the mustard and gave Tejon the excuse 
he wanted, and the dreaming senorita was nearly un- 


152 THE GRINGOS 

seated when he ducked and whirled in his tracks. He 
ran, and she could not stop him, pull hard as she might. 
If he had only run towards home! But instead, he 
ran down the valley, because then he need not face the 
wind ; and he tried to outstrip the wind as he went. 

It was when they topped a low knoll and darted 
under the wide, writhing branches of a live oak, that 
Jack glimpsed them and gave chase; and his heart for- 
got to beat until he saw them in the open beyond, and 
knew that she had not been swept from the saddle by 
a low branch. He leaned lower over Surry’s neck and 
felt gratefully the instant response of the horse ; he had 
thought that Surry was running his best on such un- 
even ground; but even a horse may call up an unsus- 
pected reserve of speed or endurance, if his whole heart 
is given to the service of his master; there was a per- 
ceptible quickening and a lengthening of stride, and 
J ack knew then that Surry could do no more and keep 
his feet. Indeed, if he held that pace for long without 
stumbling, he would prove himself a more remarkable 
horse than even Dade declared him to be. 

He hoped to overtake the girl soon, for in the 
glimpses he got of her now and then, as she flew across 
an open space, he saw that she was putting her whole 
weight upon the reins; and that should make a suffi- 
cient handicap to the gray to wipe out the three-hun- 


AN ILL WIND 


153 


dred-yard distance between them. It did not seem 
possible that Tejon could be running as fast as Surry; 
and yet, after a half-mile or so of that killing pace, 
Jack could not see that he was gaining much. Perhaps 
it was his anxiety to overtake her that made the chase 
seem interminable; for presently they emerged upon 
the highway which led south to Santa Clara and so on 
down the valley, and he saw, on a straight, open stretch, 
that he was much nearer ; so near he could see that her 
hair was down and blowing about her face in a way 
that must have blinded her at times. 

Tejon showed no disposition to stop, however; and 
Jack, bethinking him of the trick Dade had played 
upon the Vigilantes with his riata, threw off the loop 
that held it. If he could get close enough, he meant to 
lasso the horse unless she managed by that time to get 
him under control. Now that they were in the road, 
Surry’s stride was more even, and although his breath- 
ing was becoming audible, he held his pace wonder- 
fully well — though for that matter, Tejon also seemed 
to be running just as fast as at first, in spite of that 
steady pull; indeed, Tejon knew the trick of curling 
his chin down close to his chest, so that the girl’s 
strength upon the reins was as nothing. 

Jack was almost close enough to make it seem worth 
while to call encouragement, when a horseman appeared 


154 


THE GRINGOS 


suddenly from behind a willow clump and pulled up in 
astonishment, as he saw Teresita bearing down upon 
him like a small whirlwind. Whereupon Tejon, recog- 
nizing horse and rider and knowing of old that they 
meant leisurely riding and much chatter, with little 
laughs for punctuation, slowed of his own accord and 
so came up to the man at his usual easy lope, and 
stopped before him. 

So quickly did it happen that a witness might easily 
have sworn in perfect good faith that the girl was flee- 
ing from Jack Allen and pulled up thankfully when 
she met Jose Pacheco. One could not blame Jose for 
so interpreting the race, or for the anger that blazed 
in his eyes for the pursuer, even while his lips parted 
in a smile at the coming of the girl. He reined in 
protectingly between her and the approaching Jack, and 
spoke soothingly because of her apparent need. 

“ Be not frightened, querida mia. Thou art safe 
with me — and the accursed gringo will get a lesson 
he will not soon forget, for daring — ” 

Teresita, looking back, discovered Jack behind her. 
He was pulling Surry in, now, and he held his riata 
in one hand as though he were ready to use it at a 
moment’s notice, and blank astonishment was on his 
face. That, perhaps, was because of Jose and Jose’s 
hostile attitude, standing crosswise of the trail like 


AN ILL WIND 


155 


that, and scowling while he waited, with the fingers of 
his right hand fumbling inside his sash — for his dag- 
ger, perchance ! Teresita smiled wickedly, in apprecia- 
tion of the joke on them both. 

“ Do not kill him, Jose,” she begged caressingly. 
“ Truly he did not harm me ! I but ran from him 
because — ” She sent a smile straight to the leaping 
heart of Jose, and fumbled with her tossing banner of 
hair, and turned eyes of innocent surprise on the Senor 
Allen, who needed some punishment — and was in fair 
way to get it. 

“ What is the pleasure of the senor?” Jose’s voice 
was as smooth and as keen as the dagger-blade under 
his sash. “ His message must indeed be urgent to war- 
rant such haste! You would do well to ride back as 
hastily as you came; for truly a blind man could see 
that the senorita has not the smallest desire for your 
presence. As for me — ” As for him, he smiled a 
sneer and a threat together. 

Jack looked to the girl for a rebuke of the man’s 
insult ; but Teresita’s head was drooped and tilted side- 
wise while she made shift to braid her hair, and if she 
heard she surely did not seem to heed. 

“ As for you, it would n’t be a bad idea for you to 
mind your own business,” Jack retorted bluntly. “ The 
senorita does n’t need any interpreter. The senorita 


156 THE GRINGOS 

is perfectly well-qualified to speak for herself. She 
knows — ” 

“ The senorita knows whom she can trust — and it 
is not a low dog of a gringo, who would be rotting now 
with a neck stretched by the hangman’s rope, if he had 
but received his deserts; murderer of five men in one 
day, men of his own race at that ! Gambler ! loafer — ” 

At the press of silver rowels against his sides, Surry 
lunged forward. But Teresita’s horse sidled suddenly 
between the two men. 

“ Senor Jack, we will go now, if this wicked caballo 
of mine will consent to do his running towards home. 
Thank you, Jose, for stopping him for me; truly, I 
think he was minded to carry me to Santa Clara, 
whether I wished to go or not! But doubtless Senor 
Jack would have overtaken him soon. Adios, Jose. 
Gracias, amigo mio ! ” Having put her hair into 
some sort of confinement, she picked up her reins 
and smiled at Jose and then at Jack in a way to tie 
the tongues of them both; though their brows were 
black with the hatred which must, if they met again, 
bear fruit of violence. 

Fifty yards away, Teresita looked back and waved 
a hand at the gay horseman who still stood fair across 
the highway and stared blankly after them. 

“ Poor Jose ! ” she murmured mischievously. “ Very 


AN ILL WIND 


157 


puzzled and unhappy he looks. I wonder if the privi- 
lege of tearing you in pieces would not bring the smile 
to his lips? Senor Jack, if so be you should ever de- 
sire death, will you let Jose do the killing? To serve 
you thus would give him great pleasure, I am sure.” 

Jack, usually so headlong in his speech and actions, 
rode a moody three minutes without replying. He was 
not a fool, even though he was rather deeply in love; 
he felt in her that feline instinct to torment which 
wise men believe they can detect in all women; and 
angry as he was at Jose’s deliberate insults, he knew 
quite well in his heart that Teresita had purposely 
provoked them. 

“ I Ve heard,” he said at last, looking at her with 
the hard glint in his eyes that thrilled her pleasurably, 
“ that all women are either angels or devils. I believe 
you ’re both, Senorita ! ” 

Teresita laughed and pouted her lips at him. “ Such 
injustice! Am I then to be blamed because Jose has 
a bad temper and speech hotter than the enchilladas of 
Margarita ? I could love him for his rages ! When the 
Blessed Mary sends me a lover — ” She looked over 
her shoulder and sighed romantically, hiding the 
laughter in her eyes and the telltale twist of her lips 
as best she could, with lashes downcast and face 
averted. 


158 


THE GRINGOS 


Even a kitten the size of your two fists knows how to 
paw a mouse, even though it lacks the appetite for de- 
vouring it after the torture. One cannot logically blame 
Teresita. She merely used the weapons which nature 
put into her pink palms. 


CHAPTER XII 


POTENTIAL. MOODS 

S O engrossed was the senorita in her truly feminine 
game of cat-and-mouse that she quite forgot her 
worry over Mrs. Jerry until she was in her own room 
and smiling impishly at herself in the mirror, while 
she brushed the wind-tangles from her hair and planned 
fresh torment for the Senor Jack. The senorita liked 
to see his eyes darken and then light with the flames 
that thrilled her; and it was exceedingly pleasant to 
know that she could produce that effect almost when- 
ever she chose. Also, her lips would curve of them- 
selves whenever she thought of Jose’s rage and subse- 
quent bafflement when she rode off with Senor Jack; 
and of Senor Jack’s black looks when she praised Jose 
afterwards. Truly they hated each other very much — 
those two caballeros ! She was woman enough to know 
the reason why, and to find a great deal of pleasure 
in the knowledge. 

Still smiling, she lifted a heavy lock of hair to the 
light and speculated upon the mystery of coloring. 


160 


THE GRINGOS 


Black it was, except when the sun lighted it and brought 
a sheen that was almost blue; and Senor Jack’s was 
neither red, as was the hair of the big Senor Simpson, 
nor brown nor gold, but a tantalizing mixture of all; 
especially where it waved it had many different shades, 
just as the light gold and the dark of the pretty 
senora’s — It was then that remembrance came to the 
senorita and made her glance a self-accusing one, when 
she looked at her reflected face. 

“ Selfish, thoughtless one that thou art to forget that 
sweet senora ! ” she cried. And for punishment she 
pulled the lock of hair so that it hurt — a little. “ I 
shall ask Senor Hunter if he will not send the carriage 
for her — and perhaps I shall go with him to bring 
her; though truly she will never leave the big hombre 
who speaks so many words over such slight matters. I 
am glad I did not yet carry Chico to live there in that 
small camp. Till the house is finished, he shall stay 
with me. Truly the storm would kill him if he were 
there. But perhaps the storm will not be so great, 
after all — not so great as is the storm in the hearts 
of those two who met and would have fought, had I 
not so skillfully prevented it! Santa Maria, I truly 
must have been inspired, to act like the dove with the 
branch of the olive when I flew between them ; and the 
eyes of Jose were blazing; and Senor Jack — ” There 


POTENTIAL MOODS 


161 


came the smile again, and the dawdling of the brush 
while she thought of those two. So the pretty senora 
was forgotten, after all, and left to shiver over her 
mending in the prairie schooner because Teresita was 
a spoiled child with more hearts than it is good for a 
girl to play with. 

As a matter of fact, however, the pretty senora was 
quite accustomed to discomfort in varying degrees, and 
gave less thought to the weather than did the more ten- 
derly sheltered women of the valley, so that no harm 
came of the forgetfulness; especially since the storm 
fell far short of Gustavo’s expectations and caused that 
particular prophet the inconvenience of searching his 
soul and the heavens for an explanation of the sunshine 
that reprehensibly bathed the valley next day in its 
soft glow. 

Also, no immediate harm resulted from the rage of 
the two caballeros, although not even the most partial 
judge could give the credit to Teresita’s “ olive branch.” 
Chance herself stepped in, and sent a heavy, dead 
branch crashing down from a swaying oak upon the 
head and right shoulder of Jose, while he was riding 
into his own patio. Whereupon Jose, who had been 
promising himself vengefully that he would send Man- 
uel immediately with a challenge to the gringo who had 
dared lift eyes to the Senorita Teresa Picardo, instantly 


162 


THE GRINGOS 


forgot both his love and his hate in the oblivion that 
held him until nightfall. 

After that his stiffened muscles and the gash in his 
scalp gave him time for meditation; and meditation 
counseled patience. The gringo would doubtless go 
to the rodeo, and he would meet him there without the 
spectacular flavor of a formal challenge. For Jose was 
a decent sort of a fellow and had no desire to cheapen 
his passion or cause the senorita the pain of publie 
gossip. It was that same quality of dignity in his love 
that had restrained him from seeking a deliberate quar- 
rel with Jack before now; and though he fumed in- 
wardly while his outer hurts healed, he resolved to wait. 
The rodeo would give him his chance. 

Because it is not in the nature of the normal human 
to keep his soul always under the lock and key of utter 1 
silence, a little of his hate and a little of his hope 
seeped into the ears of Manuel, whose poultices of 
herbs were doing their work upon the bruised muscles 
of Jose’s shoulder, and whose epithets against the two 
gringos who were responsible for his exile from the 
Picardo hacienda had the peculiar flavor of absolute 
sincerity. Frequently he cursed them while he changed 
the poultices; and Don Jose, listening approvingly,, 
added now and then a curse of his own, and a vague 
prediction of how he meant to teach the blue-eyed one 


POTENTIAL MOODS 


163 


& lesson which he would weep at remembering — if 
he lived to remember anything. 

Manuel did not mean to tattle; he merely let fall a 
word or two to Valencia, whom he met occasionally in 
the open and accused bitterly of having a treacherous 
friendship for the gringos, and particularly for the 
blue-eyed one. 

“ Because that mongrel whose hair is neither red nor 
yellow nor black speaks praise to you of your skill, 
perchance, and because he makes you laugh with the 
foolish tales he tells, you would turn against your own 
kind, Valencia. No honest Spaniard can be a friend 
of the gringos. Of the patron,” he added rather sor- 
rowfully, “ I do not speak, for truly he is in his dotage 
and therefore not to be judged too harshly. But you, 
V alencia — you should think twice before you choose 
a gringo for your friend; a gringo who speaks fair to 
the father that he may cover his love-making to the 
daughter, who is easily fooled, like all younglings. 

“ The young Don Jose will deal with that blue-eyed 
one, Valencia. Every day he swears it by all the saints. 
He but waits for the rodeo and until I have healed 
his shoulder — and then you shall see ! There will be 
no love-making then for the gringo. Jose will have 
the senorita yet for his bride, just as the saints have 
desired since they played together in the patio and I 


164 


THE GRINGOS 


watched them that they did not run into the corrals 
to be kicked in the head, perchance, by the mustangs 
we had there. Jose, I tell you, has loved her too long 
to stand now with the sombrero in hand while that 
arrogant hombre steals her away. When the shoulder 
is well — and truly, it was near broken — and when 
they meet at the rodeo, then you shall see what will 
happen to your new gringo friend.” 

Valencia did not quarrel with Manuel. He merely 
listened and smiled his startlingly sunny smile, and 
afterwards repeated Manuel’s words almost verbatim 
to Jack. Later, he recounted as much as he considered 
politic to Hon Andres himself, just to show how bitter 
Manuel had become and how unjust. Valencia, it must 
be admitted, was not in any sense working in the in- 
terests of peace. He looked forward with a good deal 
of eagerness to that meeting of which Manuel prated. 
He had all the faith of your true hero-worshiper in his 
new friend, and with the story of that last eventful 
day which Jack had spent in San Francisco to build 
his faith upon, he confidently expected to see Jose learn 
a much-needed lesson in humility — aye, and Manuel 
also. 

Since even the best-natured gossip is like a breeze to 
fan the flames of dissension, Don Andres spent an 
anxious hour in devising a plan that would preserve 


POTENTIAL MOODS 


165 


the peace he loved better even than prosperity. While 
he smoked behind the passion vines on the veranda, he 
thought his way slowly from frowns to a smile of 
satisfaction, and finally called a peon scurrying across 
the patio to stand humbly before him while he gave 
a calm order. His majordomo he would see, as speed- 
ily as was convenient to a man as full of ranch business 
as Dade Hunter found himself. 

Dade, tired and hot from a forenoon in the saddle 
inspecting the horses that were to bear the burden of 
rodeo work, presently came clanking up to the porch 
and lifted the sombrero off his sweat-dampened fore- 
head thankfully, when the shade of the vines enveloped 
him. 

The eyes of the don dwelt pleasedly upon the tanned 
face of his foreman. More and more Don Andres was 
coming to value the keen common-sense which is so rare, 
and which distinguished Dade’s character almost as 
much as did the kindliness that made nearly every man 
his friend. 

The don had already fallen into the habit of present- 
ing his orders under the guise of ideas that needed the 
confirmation of the majordomo, before they became 
definite plans; and it speaks much for those two that 
neither of them suspected that it was so. Thus, Don 
Andres’ solution of the problem of preserving peace 


166 


THE GRINKOS 

became the subject for a conference that lasted more 
than an hour. The don was absolutely candid ; so can- 
did that he spoke upon a delicate subject, and one that 
carried a sting of which he little dreamed. 

“ One factor I cannot help recognizing,” he said 
slowly. “ I am not blind, nor is the senora blind, to 
the — the — friendship that is growing between Senor 
Jack and our daughter. We had hoped — but we have 
long been resolved that in matters of the heart, our 
daughter shall choose for herself so long as she does 
not choose one altogether unworthy; which we do not 
fear, for to that extent we can protect her by admitting 
to our friendship only those in whose characters we 
have some confidence. Now that we understand each 
other so well, amigo, I will say that I have had some 
correspondence with friends in San Francisco, who 
have been so good as to make some investigations in my 
behalf. Their Vigilance Committee,” he said, smiling, 
“ was not the only tribunal which weighed evidence 
for and against your friend, nor was it the only vin- 
dication he has received. 

“ I am assured that in the trouble which brought 
him to my house he played the part of an honest gen- 
tleman fighting to uphold the principles which all hon- 
est men espouse ; and while he is hot-tempered at times, 
and perhaps more thoughtless than we could wish, I 


POTENTIAL MOODS 167 

hear no ill of him save the natural follies of high- 
stomached youth. 

“ Therefore I am willing to abide by the choice of 
my daughter, whose happiness is more dear to her 
parents than any hope they may have cherished of the 
welding of two families who have long been friends. 
I myself,” he added reminiscently, “ fled to the priest 
with my sweetheart as if all the fiends of hell pursued 
us, because her parents had chosen for her a husband 
whom she could not love. Since we know the pain of 
choosing between a parent’s wishes and the call of the 
heart, we are resolved that our child shall be left free 
to choose for herself. Therefore, I think our plan is 
a wise one ; and the result must be as the saints decree.” 

Dade, because he was engrossed with stifling the ache 
he had begun to think was dead because it had grown 
numb, bowed his head without speaking his assent and 
rose to his feet. 

“ I ’ll tell Jack,” he said, as he started for the 
stables. “ I guess he ’ll do it, all right.” 


CHAPTER XIII 


BILL WILSON GOES VISITING 

4 4 T DOH’T know what you ’ve been doing to Jose 

A Pacheco, lately,” was Dade’s way of broaching 
the subject, “ but Don Andres asked me to 1 persuade 9 
you not to go on rodeo, on account of some trouble 
between you and Jose.” 

“ He wants my scalp, is all,” Jack explained easily, 
picking burrs from the fringe of his sash — burrs he 
had gotten when he ran a race with Teresita from the 
farther side of the orchard to the spring, a short time 
before. “ Valencia told me — and he got it from Man- 
uel — that J ose is right on the warpath. If it was n’t 
for his being laid up — ” 

“ Oh, I know. You ’d like to go over and have it 
out with him. But you can’t. The Pachecos and the 
Picardos are almost like one family. I don’t suppose 
Jose ever stayed away from here so long since he was 
a baby, as he has since we came. It ’s bad enough to 
keep old friends away, without mixing up a quarrel. 
Have you seen Jose lately? Don Andres seemed to 


WILSON GOES VISITING 169 

think so, but I told him you’d have said something 
about it to me if you had.” 

“ I met him in the trail, a week or so ago,” Jack 
admitted with manifest reluctance. “ He was n’t overly 
friendly, but there was n’t any real trouble, if that ’s 
what you’re afraid of.” He looked sidelong at the 
other, saw the hurt in Hade’s eyes at this evidence of 
the constraint growing intangibly between them, and 
laughed defiantly. 

“ Upon my soul ! ” he exclaimed, “ one would think 
I was simple-minded, the way you act! H’ you think 
a man never scowled my way before ? U’ you think 
I ’m afraid of Jose ? U’ you think I don’t know enough 
to take care of myself ? What the devil do you think ? 
Can’t go on rodeo — you ’re afraid I might get hurt ! 
I ain’t crazy to go, for that matter; but I don’t know 
as I relish this guardian-angel stunt you ’re playing. 
You ’ve got your hands full without that. You needn’t 
worry about me ; I ’ve managed to squeak along so far 
without getting my light put out — ” 

“ By being a tolerably fair shot, yes,” Hade assented, 
his face hardening a little under the injustice. “ But 
since I ’m hired to look after Hon Andres’ interests, 
you ’re going to do what I tell you. You ’ll stay here 
and boss the peons while I ’m gone. A friendship be- 
tween two families that has lasted as many years as 


170 


THE GRINGOS 


you are old, ain’t going to be busted up now, if I can 
help it. It ’s strained to the snapping-point right now, 
just because the don is friendly with us gringos. Of 
course, we can’t help that. He had his ideas on the 
subject before he ever saw me or you. Just the same, 
it ’s up to us not to do the snapping ; and I know one 
gringo that ’s going to behave himself if I have to take 
him down and set on him ! ” 

“ Whee-ee ! Somebody else is hitting the war-post, 
if I know the signs ! ” Dade stirred to anger always 
tickled Jack immensely, perhaps because of its very 
novelty, and restored him to good humor. “ Have it 
your own way, then, darn you ! I don’t want to go on 
rodeo, nohow.” 

“ I know that, all right,” snapped Dade, and started 
off with his hat tilted over his eyes. Ho one, he re- 
minded himself, would want to spend a month or so 
riding the range when he could stay and philander 
with as pretty a Spanish girl as ever played the game 
of cat-and-mouse with a man. And Jack never had been 
the kind to go looking for trouble ; truth to tell, he had 
never found it necessary, for trouble usually flew to 
meet him as a needle flies to the magnet. 

But, a wound is not necessarily a deadly one because 
it sends excruciating pain-signals to a man’s heart and 
brain ; and love seldom is fatal, however painful it may 


WILSON GOES VISITING 171 

be. Dade was slowly recovering, under the rather 
heroic treatment of watching his successor writhe and 
exult by turns, as the mood of the maiden might decree. 
Strong medicine, that, to be swallowed with a wry face, 
if you will ; but it is guaranteed to cure if the sufferer 
is not a mental and moral weakling. 

Dade was quite ready to go out to rodeo work; in- 
deed, he was anxious to go. But, not being a morbid 
young man, he did not contemplate carrying a broken 
heart with him. Teresita was sweet and winsome and 
maddeningly alluring; he knew it, he felt it still. In- 
deed, he was made to realize it every time the whim 
seized her to punish Jack by smiling upon Dade. But 
she was as capricious as beauty usually is, and he knew 
that also ; and after being used several times as a club 
with which to beat Jack into proper humility (and al- 
ways seeing very clearly that he was merely the club 
and nothing more) he had almost reached the point 
where he could shrug shoulders philosophically at her 
coquetry; and what is better, do it without bitterness. 
At least, he could do it when he had not seen her for 
several hours, which made rodeo time a relief for which 
he was grateful. 

What hurt him most, just now, was the constraint be- 
tween him and Jack; time was when Jack would have 
told him immediately of any unpleasant meeting with 


172 THE GRINGOS 

Jose. It never occurred to Dade that he himself had 
fostered the constraint by his moody aloofness when he 
was fighting the first jealous resentment he had ever 
felt against the other in the years of their constant 
companionship. An unexpected slap on the shoulder 
almost sent him headlong. 

“ Say, old man, I did n’t mean it,” J ack began con- 
tritely, referring perhaps to his petulant speech, rather 
than to his mode of making his presence known. 
“ But — come over here in the shade, and let ’s have it 
out once for all. I know you are n’t stuck up over being 
majordomo, but all the same you ’re not the old Dade, 
whether you know it or not. You go around as if — 
well — you know how you ’ve been. What I wanted 
to say is, what ’s the matter ? Is it anything I ’ve said 
or done ? ” 

He sat down on the stone steps of a hut used for a 
storehouse and reached moodily for his smoking ma- 
terial. “ I know I did n’t say anything about running 
up against Jose — but it wasn’t anything beyond a 
few words ; and, Dade, you ’ve been almighty hard to 
talk to lately. If you ’ve got anything against me — ” 

“ Oh, quit it ! ” Dade’s face glowed darkly with the 
. blood which shame brought there. He opened his lips 
to say more, took a long breath instead, closed them, 
and looked at Jack queerly. For one reckless moment 


WILSON GOES VISITING 173 

he meditated a plunge into that perfect candor which 
may be either the wisest or the most foolish thing a 
man may do in all his life. 

“ I did n’t think you noticed it,” he said, his voice 
lowered instinctively because of the temptation to tell 
the truth, and his glance wandering absently over to the 
corral opposite, where Surry stood waiting placidly 
until his master should have need of him. “ There 
has been a regular brick wall between us lately. I felt 
it myself and I blamed you for it. I — ” 

“ It was n’t my building,” Jack cut in eagerly. 
“ It ’s you, you old pirate. Why, you ’d hardly talk 
when we happened to be alone, and when I tried to act 
as if nothing was wrong, you ’d look so darned sour I 
just had to close my sweet lips like the petals of a — ” 
“ Cabbage,” supplied Dade dryly, and placed his 
cigarette between lips that twitched. 

Former relations having thus been established after 
their own fashion, Dade began to wonder how he had 
ever been fool enough to think of confessing his hurt. 
It would have built that wall higher and thicker; he 
saw it now, and with the lighting of his cigarette he 
swung back to a more normal state of mind than he had 
been in for a month. 

“ I ’m going up toward Manuel’s camp, pretty soon,” 
he observed lazily, eying Jack meditatively through a 


174 THE GRINGOS 

thin haze of smoke. “ Want to take a ride np that 
way and let the sun shine on your nice new saddle ? ” 
Though he called it Manuel’s camp from force of habit, 
that hot-blooded gentleman had not set foot over its 
unhewn doorsill for three weeks and more. 

Jack hesitated, having in mind the possibility of per- 
suading Teresita that she ought to pay a visit to the 
Simpson cabin that day to display her latest accomplish- 
ment by asking in real, understandable English, how the 
pup was getting along ; and to show the pretty senora the 
proper way to pat tortillas out thin and smooth, as 
Margarita had been bribed to teach Teresita herself 
to do. 

“ Sure, I ’ll go,” he responded, before the hesitation 
had become pronounced, and managed to inject a good 
deal of his old heartiness into the words. 

“ I ’m going to have the cattle pushed down this 
way,” Dade explained, “ so you can keep an eye on them 
from here and we won’t have to keep up that camp. 
Since they made Bill Wilson captain of the Vigilantes, 
there is n’t quite so much wholesale stealing as there 
was, anyway, and enough vaqueros went with Manuel 
so I ’ll need every one that ’s left. I ’ll leave you 
Pedro, because he can’t do any hard riding, after that 
fall he got the other day. The two of you can keep 
the cattle pretty well down this way.” 


WILSON GOES VISITING 175 

“ All right. Say, what was it made you act so glum 
since we came down here ? ” Jack, as occasionally hap- 
pens with a friend, was not content to forget a grievance 
while the cause of it remained clouded with mystery. 

“ Are you sore over that trouble I had in town ? I 
know how you feel about — well, about killings; but, 
Dade, I had to. I hate it myself. You need n’t think 
I like the idea, just because I have n’t talked about it, 
A fellow feels different,” he added slowly, “ when it ’a 
white men. When we fought Injuns, I don’t believe 
it worried either one of us to think we ’d killed some. 
We were generally glad of it. But these others — they 
were mean enough and ornery enough; but they were 
humans. I was glad at the time, but that wore off. 
And I ’ve caught you looking at me kinda queer, lately, 
as if you hated me, almost. You ought to know — ” 

“ I know you ’re always going off half-cocked,” 
chuckled Dade, quite himself again. “ No, now you 
mention it, I don’t like the idea of shooting first and 
finding out afterwards what it was all about, the way 
so many fellows have got in the habit of doing. Guns 
are all right in their place. And when you get away 
out where the law doesn’t reach, and you have to look 
out for yourself, they come in mighty handy. But like 
every other kind of power, most men don’t know when 
and how to use the gun argument ; and they make more 


THE GRINGOS 


176 

trouble than they settle, half the time. You had a right 
to shoot, that day, and shoot to kill. Why, did n’t the 
Committee investigate you, first thing after Bill was 
elected, and find that you were justified ? Did n’t they 
wipe your reputation clean with their official document, 
that Bill sent you a copy of? No, that never bothered 
me at all, old man. You want to forget about it. You 
only saved the Committee the trouble of hanging ’em, 
according to Bill. Say, Valencia was telling me yes- 
terday — ” 

u Well, what the dickens did ail you, then ? ” 

Dade threw out both hands helplessly and gave a 
rueful laugh. “ You ’re harder to dodge than an old 
cow when you ’ve got her calf on the saddle,” he com- 
plained. 

“ The trouble was,” he explained gravely, “ that these 
last boots of mine pinched like the devil, and I ’ve been 
mad for a month because my feet are half a size big- 
ger than yours. I wanted to stump you for a trade, 
only I knew yours would cripple me up worse than 
these did. But I ’ve got ’em broke in now, so I can 
walk without tying my face into a hard knot. There ’s 
nothing on earth,” he declared earnestly, “ wfill put me 
on the fight as quick as a pair of boots that don’t fit.” 

Jack paid tribute to Dade’s mendaciousness by look- 
ing at him doubtfully, not quite sure whether to believe 


WILSON GOES VISITING 177 

him; and Dade chuckled again, well pleased with him- 
self. Even when Jack finally told him quite frankly 
that he was a liar, he only laughed and went over to 
where Surry stood rolling the wheel in his bit. He 
would not answer Jack’s chagrined vilifications, except 
with an occasional amused invitation to go to the devil. 

So the wall of constraint crumbled to the nothing- 
ness out of which it was built, and the two came close 
together again in that perfect companionship that may 
choose whatever medium the mood of man may direct, 
and still hold taut the bond of their friendship. 

While they rode together up the valley, J ack told the 
details of the encounter with Jose, and declared that 
he was doing all that even Dade could demand of him 
by resisting the desire to ride down to Santa Clara and 
make Jose swallow his words. 

“ I ’d have done it anyway, as soon as I brought 
Teresita home,” he added, with a hint of apology for 
his seeming weakness. u But, dam it, I knew all the 
time that she made him think she was running away 
from me. It did look that way, when she stopped as 
soon as she met him; I can’t swear right now whether 
Tejon was running away, or whether he was just simply 
running!” He laughed ruefully. “ She ’s an awful 
little tease — just plumb full of the old Hick, even 
if she does look as innocent and as meek as their pic- 


178 


THE GRINGOS 


tures of the Virgin Mary. She had us both guessing, 
let me tell you! He was pretty blamed insulting, 
though, and I ’d have licked the stuffing out of him 
right then and there, if she had n’t swung in and played 
the joker the way she did. Made Jose look as if he ’d 
been doused with cold water — and him breathing fire 
and brimstone the minute before. 

“ It was funny, I reckon — to Teresita ; we did n’t 
see the joke. Every time I bring up the subject of that 
runaway, she laughs; but she won’t say whether it was 
^ runaway, no matter how I sneak the question in. So 
I just let it go, seeing Jose is laid up now; only, next 
time I bump into Jose Pacheco, he ’s going to act pretty, 
or there ’s liable to be a little excitement. 

“ I wish I had my pistols. I wrote to Bill Wilson 
about them again, the other day ; if he does n’t send them 
down pretty soon, I ’m going after them.” He stopped, 
his attention arrested by the peculiar behavior of a 
herd of a hundred or more cattle, a little distance from 
the road. 

“ How, what do you suppose is the excitement over 
there ? ” he asked ; and for answer Dade turned from 
the trail to investigate. 

“ Maybe they ’ve run across the carcass of a critter 
that ’s been killed,” he hazarded, “ though this is pretty 
close home for beef thieves to get in their work. Most 


WILSON GOES VISITING 179 

of the stock is killed north and east of ManuePs camp.” 

The cattle, moving restlessly about and jabbing their 
long, wicked horns at any animal that got in the way, 
lifted heads to stare at them suspiciously, before they 
turned tail and scampered off through the mustard. 
From the live oak under which they had been gathered 
came a welcoming shout, and the two, riding under the 
tent-like branches, craned necks in astonishment. 

“ Hello, Jack,” spoke the voice again. “ I ’m al- 
mighty glad to see yuh ! Hello, Dade, how are yuh ? ” 

“Bill Wilson, by thunder!” Jack’s tone was in- 
credulous. 

Bill, roosting a good ten feet from the ground on 
a great, horizontal limb, flicked the ashes from the 
cigar he was smoking and grinned down at them un- 
abashed. 

“ You sure took your time about getting here,” he 
remarked, hitching himself into a more comfortable 
posture on the rough bark. “ 1 ’ve been praying for 
you, two hours and more. Say, don’t ever talk to me 
about hungry wolf -packs, hoys. I ’ll take ’em in prefer- 
ence to the meek-eyed cow-bossies, any time.” 

They besought him for details and got them in Bill’s 
own fashion of telling. Briefly, he had long had in 
mind a trip down to the Picardo ranch, just to see the 
boys and the country and have a talk over the stirring 


180 


THE GRINGOS 


events of the past month; and, he added, he wanted to 
bring Jack his pistols himself, because it was not 
reasonable to expect any greaser to withstand the temp- 
tation of keeping them, once he got them in his hands. 

Therefore, having plenty of excuses for venturing 
so far from his place, and having “ tied the dove of 
peace to the ridge-pole ” of town by means of some 
thorough work on the part of the new Committee, he 
had boldly set forth that morning, soon after sunrise, 
upon a horse which somebody had sworn that a lady 
could ride. 

Bill confessed frankly that he was n’t any lady, how- 
ever; and so, when the horse ducked unexpectedly to 
one side of the trail, because of something he saw in 
the long grass, Bill surprised himself very much by 
getting his next clear impression of the situation from 
the ground. 

“ I dunno how I got there, but I was there, all right, 
and it did n’t feel good, either. But I ’d been making 
up my mind to get off and try walking though, so I done 
it. Say, I don’t see nothing so damned attractive about 
riding horseback, anyway!” 

He yelled at the horse to stop, but it appeared that 
his whoas were so terrifying that the horse ran for its 
life. So Bill started to walk, beguiling the time by 
soliloquizing upon — well, Bill put it this way : “ I 


WILSON GOES VISITING 181 

walked and I cussed, and I cussed and I walked, for 
about four hours and a half. Say ! How do you make 
out it 's only twenty miles ? ” 

“ Hearer thirty,” corrected Dade, and Bill grunted 
and went on with the story of his misfortunes. Walk- 
ing became monotonous, and he wearied of soliloquy 
before the cattle discovered him. 

“Met quite a band, all of a sudden,” said Bill. 
“ They throwed up their heads and looked at me like 
I was wild Injuns, and I shooed 'em off — or tried to. 
They did run a little piece, and then they all turned 
and looked a minute, and commenced coming again, 
heads up and tails a-rising. And,” he added naively, 
“ I commenced going ! ” He said he thought that he 
could go faster than they could come; but the faster 
he departed, the more eager was their arrival. “ Till 
we was all of us on the gallop and tongues a-hanging.” 

Bill was big, and he was inclined to flesh because 
of no exercise more strenuous than quelling incipient 
riots in his place, or weighing the dust that passed into 
his hands and ownership. He must have run for some 
distance, since he swore by several forbidden things 
that the chase lasted for five miles — “ And if you 
don't believe it, you can ride back up the trail till you 
come to the dent I made with my toes when I started 


182 


THE GRINGOS 


Other cattle came up and joined in the race, until 
Bill had quite a following; and when he was gasping 
for breath and losing hope of seeing another day, he 
came upon a live oak, whose branches started almost 
from the roots and inclined upward so gently that even 
a fat man who has lost his breath need not hesitate over 
the climbing. 

“ Thank the good Lord he don’t cut all his trees 
after the same pattern,” finished Bill fervently, “ and 
that live oaks ain’t built like redwoods. If they was, 
you ’d be wiping off my coat-buttons right now, trying 
to identify my remains ! ” 

Being polite young men, and having a sincere liking 
for Bill, they hid certain exchanges of grins and 
glances under their hat-brims (Bill being above them 
and the brims being wide) and did not by a single word 
belittle the escape he had had from man-eating cows. 
Instead, Dade coaxed him down from the tree and onto 
Surry, swearing solemnly that the horse was quite as 
safe as the limb to which Bill showed a disposition to 
cling. Bill was hard to persuade, but since Dade was 
a man who inspired faith instinctively, the exchange 
was finally accomplished, Bill still showing that strange, 
clinging disposition that made him grip the saddle- 
horn as a drowning man is said to grasp at a 
straw. 


WILSON GOES VISITING 183 

So they got him to the house, the two riding Jack’s 
peppery palimeno with some difficulty; while Surry 
stepped softly that he might not dislodge that burden 
in the saddle, whose body lurched insecurely and made 
the horse feel at every step the ignorance of the man. 
They got him and themselves to the house; and his 
presence there did its part towards strengthening Don 
Andres’ liking for gringos, while Bill himself gained 
a broader outlook, a keener perception of the rights 
of the native-born Californians. 

Up in San Francisco there was a tendency to make 
light of those rights. It was commonly accepted that 
the old land grants were outrageous, and that the dons 
who prated of their rights were but land pirates who 
would be justly compelled by the government to dis- 
gorge their holdings. Bill had been in the habit of 
calling all Spaniards “ greasers,” just as the average 
Spaniard spoke of all Americans as “ gringos,” or 
heathenish foreigners. 

But on the porch of Don Andres, his saddle-galled 
person reclining at ease in a great armchair behind the 
passion vines, with the fragile stem of a wine-glass 
twirling between his white, sensitive, gambler-fingers 
while he listened to the don’s courtly utterances as 
translated faithfully by Dade (Jack being absent on 
some philandering mission of his own), big Bill Wilson 


184 


THE GRINGOS 


opened his eyes to the other side of the question and 
frankly owned himself puzzled to choose. 

“ Seems like the men that came here when there 
was n’t anything but Injuns and animals, and built up 
the country outa raw material, ought to have some say 
now about who ’s going to reap the harvest,” he ad- 
mitted to Dade. “ Don’t look so much like gobbling, 
when you get right down to cases, does it ? But at the 
same time, all these men that leave the east and come 
out here to make homes — seems like they ’ve got a 
right to settle down and plow up a garden patch if they 
want to. They ’re going to do it, anyway. Looks like 
these grandees ’ll have to cash in their chips and quit, 
but it ’s a darned shame.” 

As to the town, Bill told them much that had hap- 
pened. Politics were still turbulent ; but Perkins’ 
gang of hoodlums was fairly wiped out, and the Com- 
mittee was working systematically and openly for the 
best interests of the town. There had been a hang- 
ing the week before; a public hanging in the square, 
after a trial as fair as any court properly authorized 
could give. 

“ Not much like that farce they pulled off that day 
with J ack,” asserted Bill. “ Real lawyers, we had, 
and real evidence for and against the feller, and tried 
him for real murder. Things are cooling down fast, 


WILSON GOES VISITING 185 

up there, and you can walk the streets now without 
hanging onto your money with one hand and your gun 
with the other. Jack and you can come back any time. 
And say, J ack ! ” Having heard his voice beyond the 
vines, Bill made hold to call him somewhat peremp- 
torily. 

“ There ’s some gold left, you know, that belongs 
to you. I did n’t send it all down ; did n’t like the 
looks of that — er — ” He checked himself on the 
point of saying greaser. “ And seeing you ’re located 
down here for the summer, and don’t need it, why don’t 
you put it into lots ? You two can pick up a couple 
of lots that will grow into good money, one of these 
days. Fact is, I ’ve got a couple in mind. I ’d like to 
see you fellows get some money to workin’ for you. 
This horseback riding is too blamed risky.” 

“ That looks reasonable to me,” said Dade. “ We ’ve 
got the mine, of course, but the town ought to go on 
growing, and lots should be a good place to sink a 
thousand or two. I ’ve got a little that ain’t working.” 
Then seeing the inquiring look in the eyes of Don 
Andres, he explained to him what Bill had suggested. 

Don Andres nodded his white head approvingly. 
u The Senor Weelson is right,” he said. “ You would 
do well, amigos, to heed his advice.” 

“Just as Jack says,” Dade concluded; and Jack 


186 


THE GRINGOS 


amended that statement by saying it was just as Bill 
said. If Bill knew of a lot or two and thought it 
would be a good investment, he could buy them in their 
names. And Bill snorted at their absolute lack of 
business instinct and let the subject drop into the back- 
ground with the remark that, for men that had come 
west with the gold fever, they surely did seem to care 
very little about the gold they came after. 

“ The fun of finding it is good enough,” declared 
J ack, unashamed, “ so long as we have all we need. 
And when we need more than we We got, there ’s the 
mine ; we can always find more. Just now — ” 

He waved his cigarette towards the darkening hills; 
and in the little silence that followed they heard the 
sweet, high tenor of a vaquero somewhere, singing 
plaintively a Spanish love-song. When the voice trailed 
into a mournful, minor “ Adios, adios,” a robin down 
in the orchard added a brief, throaty note of his own. 

Bill sighed and eased his stiffened muscles in the 
big chair. “ Well, I don’t blame either one of you,” 
he drawled somewhat wistfully. “ If I was fifteen 
years limberer and fifty pounds slimmer, I dunno but 
what I ’d set into this ranch game myself. It ’s sure 
peaceful.” 

Foolishly they agreed that it was. 


CHAPTER XIV 


RODEO TIME 

I N those days of large leisure and cyclonic bursts 
of excitement and activity; of midday siestas and 
moonlight serenades — and a duel, perchance, at sun- 
rise — the spring rodeo was one of the year’s events, 
to be looked forward to all winter by the vaqueros; 
and when it was over, to be talked of afterwards for 
months. A mark from which to measure the passing 
of time, it was; a date for the fixing of incidents in 
the memory of men. 

In the valley of Santa Clara, rodeo time really be- 
gan when the Picardo vaqueros cinched saddles upon 
restive mustangs some misty morning, and with shouts 
and laughter and sombreros waving high over black 
heads in adieu to those who remained behind, swept 
down the slope like a charge of gayly caparisoned 
cavalry, driving the loose saddle horses before them. 
Past the stone and adobe wall of the home pasture, past 
the fences where the rails were held to their posts with 
rawhide thongs, which the coyotes sometimes chewed 


188 


THE GRINGOS 


to pulp and so made extra work for the peons, they 
raced, exultant with life. Slim young Spaniards they 
were, clothed picturesquely in velvet and braid and 
gay sashes; with cumbersome, hairy chaparejos, high- 
crowned sombreros and big-roweled, silver spurs to 
mark their calling; Caballeros to flutter the heart of 
a languorous-eyed senorita, and to tingle the pulse of 
the man who could command and see them ride gal- 
lantly to do his bidding. 

Fairly in the midst of them, quite as gaudy to look 
upon and every whit as reckless in their horseman- 
ship, rode Dade and Jack. If their hearts were not 
as light, their faces gave no sign; and their tongues 
flung back the good-humored jibes of their fellows in 
Spanish as fluent as any they heard. 

When they left the highway and rode straight down 
the valley through the mustard that swept the chests 
of their plunging horses with dainty yellow and green, 
the two fell behind and slowing their horses to an 
easy lope, separated themselves from their exuberant 
fellows. 

“ I wish you were going along,” Dade observed 
tritely. “ If Jose Pacheco changes his mind and stays 
at home, I ’ll send you word and you can come on, if 
you want to.” 

“ Thanks.” Jack’s tone, however, did not sound 


RODEO TIME 189 

thankful. “ If I wanted to go, do you think I ’d hang 
hack because he ’s going ? ” 

“ No, I don’t. I think the prospect of a fine, large 
row would he a temptation ; and I must say I ’m kinda 
surprised that you ’ve been able to resist it. Still, I 
realize there ’s compensations.” 

“ Sure, there are. I never denied it, did I ? ” 

“ Never. I reckon you Ve sent by Bill Wilson for 
a trumpet to proclaim — ” 

“ Oh, shut up. I think,” Jack decided suddenly 
and without any visible cause, “ I ’ll turn off here and 
ride around by Jerry Simpson’s. Adios, old man, and 
heaps of good luck to you.” He swung abruptly off to 
the right and galloped away, looking back over his shoul- 
der when he had ridden a hundred paces, to wave his 
sombrero and shout a last word or two of farewell. 

“ Truly, Jose will be disappointed when he does not 
see Senor Jack amongst us,” smiled Valencia, reining 
in beside Dade and looking after the departing horse- 
man with friendly eyes. “ Though if he had good 
sense, he would be thankful. Me, I should not like 
to have trouble with that friend of yours, Senor. In 
San Francisco they talk yet of that day when he fired 
three times from a galloping horse and killed three 
men. Dios ! That was pretty shooting. I would have 
given much to see it. There will be few men so bold 


190 


THE GRINGOS 


now as to make war with that blue-eyed hombre; but 
J ose is a fool, when his will is crossed. Me, I fight — 
yes, and love the heat of fighting in my blood; but I 
do not bellow threats before, as Jose has been doing. 
Carramba ! To hear him, one would think he believed 
that men may die of curses ; if they did, the Seiior Jack 
would be lying now with candles burning at his head 
and his feet! Truly, love takes the sense out of a 
man quicker than wine.” 

Dade agreed with him, though his lips did not open 
to form any words upon the subject. 

Their first stopping place was Jose’s ranch down near 
Santa Clara, and he wondered just how far Jose’s 
hatred of him would interfere with the traditions of 
hospitality. It was not likely that Jose’s vaqueros 
would be ready to start that day; and although he 
carried his own camp equipment on pack-horses, and, 
guided by Valencia, ordered the camp set up in its 
accustomed place beside a little stream half a mile 
from the house, he sent many a questioning glance that 
way. 

If he feared a hostile reception, he was soon re- 
assured. Jose and Manuel speedily appeared, gal- 
loping side-by-side through the lush yellow and green. 
Jose’s manner was irreproachable, his speech carefully 
considered. If his eyes lacked their usual warm glow 


RODEO TIME 


191 


of friendliness, it was because he could not bring that 
look at will to beam upon the guest whom his heart 
failed to welcome. He invited Dade to dinner with 
him; and Dade, hoping to establish a better under- 
standing between them, accepted. 

Dade had not lived half his life amongst the dark- 
skinned race for nothing. He sipped the home-made 
wine with J ose, talked of many things in his soft, easy- 
natured drawl, and by letting his inner friendliness 
with the whole world look out of his eyes when they 
dwelt upon his host, went Jose one better in courtesy. 
And Jose, sauntering afterward across the patio to 
the porch, met Manuel face to face and paid tribute to 
Don Andres’ new majordomo in a single sentence. 

“ If all gringos were like this Senor Hunter, one 
could tolerate their coming to live amongst us,” he 
said frankly. 

“ Si,” grudged Manuel. “ But then, he is not all 
gringo. Many years he dwelt with our people in Texas, 
so that he has the Spanish ways ; but me, I want none 
of him.” 

Jose laughed without much mirth to lighten the 
sound. “ The blue-eyed one — did you find from the 
vaqueros why he did not come ? He need not have been 
afraid of me — not if his fame was earned honestly.” 
If his tone were patronizing, Jose perhaps had some 


192 THE GRINGOS 

excuse, since Fame had not altogether passed him by 
with face averted. 

“ Part of the way he came, and turned hack. The 
vaqueros do not know why, except Valencia. And 
Valencia — he is growing a gringo heart, like the 
patron. He will speak nothing but boasts of what that 
blue-eyed one can do. Me, I came near fighting with 
Valencia; only he would not do anything hut smile 
foolishly, when I told him what I think of traitors 
like himself.” 

“ Let him smile,” advised Jose, “ while he may.” 
Which was not a threat, in spite of its resemblance to 
one, but rather a vague reference to the specter of 
trouble that stalks all men as a fox stalks a quail, and 
might some day wipe that broad smile from the face 
of Valencia, as it had swept all the gladness from his 
own. 

He went back and smoked a final cigarette in Dade’s 
company; and if he said little, his silences held no 
hint of antagonism. It was not until Dade rose to 
return to camp for the night that Jose put the question 
that had tickled the tongue of him ever since the 
arrival on his ranch of the Picardo vaqueros. 

“ Your friend, the Senor Allen — he is to join you 
later, perhaps ? ” 

“ Jack was left to look after the ranch.” Dade’s 


RODEO TIME 


193 


eyes were level in their glance, his voice quiet with the 
convincing ring of truth. “ He won’t be on rodeo at 
all.” 

Jose went paler than he had been two weeks before 
with his hurt, but a simple word of polite surprise 
held all his answer. For Jack to stay at home, to be 
near Teresita every day, to have nothing in the way of 
his lovemaking — nothing, since those doting two, her 
parents, would but smile at whatever she might choose 
to do — there was acid enough in that thought to eat 
away all the warmth, all the generosity Jose possessed. 
He let Dade go without even the perfunctory phrases 
of regret, which custom had made almost compulsory; 
and Manuel, sitting in silent wrath upon the porch, 
listened to the steady footfalls moving up and down the 
room behind him until the moon, that had been shining 
in his smoldering eyes, slipped over the red tiles of the 
roof and left all but the tree-tops in black shade. 

“Dios! There will be one gringo the less when 
those two meet,” he muttered, staring at the tiny glow 
of his cigarette; and afterward folded his arms tightly 
over a chest that heaved with the impatience within. 
When those two met, Manuel meant to be there also 
to see. “ Me, I should like to drag him to death with 
the six-strand riata he despised ! ” was the beautiful 
thought he took to bed with him. 


194 


THE GRINGOS 


Sunshine was lifting the morning fog high above 
the tree-tops when the old, gray mare, whose every 
movement tinkled the bell hung around her neck, shook 
her rough coat vigorously to free it from the moisture 
which the fog had left; and so jangled a peremptory 
summors to the herd of saddle horses that bore the 
brand of Don Andres Picardo upon their right thighs. 
At the camp upon the bank of the Guadalupe, the em- 
baladors were shouting curses, commands, jokes, and 
civilities to one another while they brought orderly 
packs out of the chaos of camp-equipment that littered 
the ground. 

The vaqueros were saddling their mounts and fairly 
bubbling with a purely animal joy in the open; and 
Dade, his cigarette sending up a tiny ribbon of aro- 
matic smoke as if he were burning incense before the 
altar of the soul of him that looked steadfastly out of 
his eyes, walked among them with that intangible air 
of good-fellowship which is so hard to describe, but 
which carries more weight among men than any de- 
gree of imperious superiority. Valencia looked up and 
flashed him a smile as he came near; and Pancho, the 
lean vaquero with the high beak and the tender heart, 
turned to see what Valencia was smiling at and gave 
instant glimpse of his own white teeth when he saw 
Dade behind him. 


RODEO TIME 195 

“ To-day will be hot, Senor,” he said. “ Me, I wish 
we were already at Tres Pinos.” 

“ No, you don’t,” grinned Dade, “ for then you 
would not have the Sunal rancho before you, to build 
hopes upon, but behind you — and hope, they say, is 
sweeter than memory, Pancho.” 

Pancho, being ugly to look upon, liked to be rallied 
upon the one senorita in the valley whose eyes bright- 
ened at sight of him. He grinned gratifiedly and said 
no more. 

A faint medley of sounds blended by distance turned 
heads towards the east; and presently, breasting the 
mustard field that lay level and yellow to the hills, 
came Jose’s squad of vaqueros, with Jose himself lead- 
ing the group at a pace that was recklessly headlong, 
his crimson sash floating like a pennant in the breeze 
he stirred to life as he charged down upon them. 

“ Only for the silver trimmings, you looked like a 
band of warlike Injuns coming down on us with the 
sun at your back,” laughed Dade, as Jose swung down 
near him. “ They ’re riders — the Indians back there 
on the plains; and when they pop over a ridge and 
come down on you like a tidal wave, your backbone 
squirms a little in spite of you. The way your vaqueros 
parted and galloped around our camp was a pretty good 
imitation of their preliminary flourishes.” 


196 


THE GRINGOS 

“ Still, I do not come in war,” Jose returned, and 
looked full at the other. “ I hope that we shall have 
peace, Senor Hunter; though one day I shall meet that 
friend of yours in war, if the saints permit. And 
may the day come soon.” 

“ Whatever quarrel you may have with Jack, I hope 
it will not hinder us from working together without 
bad feeling between us.” Dade threw away his cigar- 
ette and took a step nearer, so that the vaqueros could 
not hear. 

“ Don Jose, I know you don’t like a gringo major- 
domo to lead Don Andres’ vaqueros on rodeo. I don’t 
blame you Californians for being prejudiced against 
Americans, because you ’ve been treated pretty shab- 
bily by a certain class of them. But you ’re not so 
narrow you can’t see that we ’re not all alike. I ’d like 
to be friends, if you will, but I ’m not going to apolo- 
gize for being a gringo, nor for being here in charge 
of this camp. I did n’t choose my nationality, and I 
did n’t ask for my job. I ’ll give you a square deal, 
and I want you to know that if there ’s any grudge 
between us, it ’s all on your side.” 

Jose’s fingers fumbled the little corn-husk wrapping 
for the cigarette he meant to make. “ Senor, I repeat 
what I said to Manuel last night,” he said, after a 
pause. “ If all gringos were like you, we Californians 


RODEO TIME 197 

would like the name better. But I thought you would 
stand by your friend — ” 

“ And so I will, to the last — ” Not being of a 
theatrical temperament, Dade balked at protestations of 
his loyalty. “ J ack and I have worked and fought and 
played elbow to elbow for a long time, Don Jose. But 
I don’t mix into his personal quarrels, unless I see 
him getting a crooked deal. I believe you ’ll fight fair. 
The rest lies between you two.” 

“ But is it not your boast that the Senor Allen is 
the supreme caballero of California? ” Jose was frank, 
at least, and Dade liked him the better for it. “ For 
three years I have held the medalla oro [gold medal] 
for riding and for riata throwing; if it is true that 
you boast — ” 

Dade, as was the way of him when disgust or chagrin 
seized him, flung out both hands impatiently. “ I did 
say he could n’t be beat. I said it to Manuel, when 
Manuel was sneering that Jack did n’t know a good 
riata from a bad one. I won’t take it back. I have n’t 
seen your work in the saddle, Don Jose. I have seen 
Jack’s, and I never saw any better. So, until I do, 
I can believe he ’s the best, can’t I ? ” 

“ Si.” Jose smiled without effort. “ You are 
honest, Senor Hunter, and that pleases me well. I do 
not like you less because you are loyal to your friend; 


198 


THE GRINGOS 


but that friend I hope one day to kill.” He looked at 
the other questioningly. “ Now I am honest also,” his 
eyes said plainly. 

“ That ’s your affair and J ack’s, as long as you don’t 
try to get him when he is n’t looking.” 

“ I am not an assassin, Senor Hunter,” Jose retorted 
stiffly. 

“ Then we understand each other, I guess. Let ’s 
get these fellows started. It’s going to be hot, they 
say, and the horses are soft yet — at least, ours are. 
We took them off pasture yesterday, most of them.” 

“ Mine are the same, Senor. But to-day’s marcha 
will be an easy one. To Sunal Rancho is not far.” He 
turned to remount and give the signal for starting. 
And with a little of the pride that had impelled Jack 
to show off his skill that day when the Captain of the 
Committee commanded him to mount the buckskin, 
Jose also vaulted into the saddle without deigning to 
touch the stirrup. 

There was doubt in the senor’s mind about his horse- 
manship being the best in all California? Very good. 
The senor would have the opportunity to judge for 
himself. Still, Jose had put to sleep most of his an- 
tagonism towards Dade, and his attitude of friendli- 
ness was not so deliberately forced as Manuel, watching 
eagerly for the first sign of a clash, believed it to be. 


CHAPTER XV 


WHEN CAMP-FIRES BLINK 

D OWN the valley they rode, gathering numbers 
to swell the cavalcade at each ranch they passed. 
La Laguna Seca, San Vincente, Las Uvas sent their 
quota of vaqueros, each headed by a majordomo and 
accompanied by embaladors with the camp equipment 
and supplies packed upon steady-going little mustangs. 
The bell-mares of the various herds jangled a chorus 
of pleasant discords with their little, iron bells. The 
scent of the mustard rose pungently under the trampling 
hoofs. At dusk, the camp-fires blinked at one another 
through the purpling shadows ; and the vaqueros, 
stretched lazily upon their saddle blankets in the glow, 
stilled the night noises beneath the pleasant murmur 
of their voices while they talked. From the camp of 
the San Vincente riders rose a voice beautifully clear 
and sweet, above the subdued clamor. 

Dade was listening to the song and dreaming a 
little while he listened, with his head lying cradled in 
his clasped hands and his face to the stars, when the 


200 


THE GRINGOS 


group around the next camp-fire tittered and broke 
into an occasional laugh. Then a question was called 
to whoever might be within hearing: 

“ Who ’s the best vaquero in California ? ” 

“ Jack Allen, the gringo! ” shouted a dozen voices, 
so that every camp must hear. Then came jeering 
laughter from every camp save one, the camp of the 
Picardo vaqueros. 

Valencia’s dark head lifted from the red and green 
blanket beyond the blaze; and Dade, watching, could 
see his profile sharply defined in the yellow light of 
the fire, as he stared toward the offending camp. The 
lips that smiled so often were drawn tight and thin; 
the nostrils flared like a frightened horse. While the 
laughs were still cackling derision, Valencia jumped 
up and ran; and Dade, even before he sat up to look, 
knew where he was going. 

At the fire where the question was put, a young 
fellow, whose heavy, black mustache prudently hid 
lips coarse and sneering, came to his feet like a dummy 
of a man and glared dazedly at his companions, as 
if their faces should tell him whose hand it was that 
gripped the braided collar of his jacket. He was not 
long in doubt, however. The voice of Valencia grated 
vitriolic sentences in his ear, and the free hand of 
Valencia was lifted to deal him a blow fair upon the 


WHEN CAMP-FIRES BLINK 201 

blank face of him. The circle of faces watched, mo- 
tionless, above crouched bodies as quiet as the stars 
overhead. 

A hand grasped Valencia’s wrist while his arm was 
lifted to strike, so that the three men stood, taut- 
muscled and still, like a shadowy, sculptured group that 
pictured some mythological conflict. 

“Let go, Valencia. This is nothing to fight over. 
Let go.” 

V alencia’s angry eyes questioned the unreadable ones 
of his majordomo; but he did not let go, and so the 
three stood for a moment longer. 

“ But they insult the Senor Allen with their jeers,” 
he protested. “ Me, I fight always for my friends who 
are not present to fight for themselves. Would not the 
Senor Allen fight this fool who flouts him so ? ” 

“ No ! ” Dade’s eyes flicked the circle of faces upon 
which the firelight danced. “ If the Senor Allen were 
here, there would be no jeering.” 

“And for that will I fight them all!” Valencia 
twisted his arm a little, in the hope that Dade would 1 
let go his wrist. “ Ah, Senor ! Shall a man not be 
true to his friends ? ” 

“ Si, he shall be true, and he shall be sensible. Is 
the Senor Jack a weakling, that he cannot fight for 
himself ? ” 


202 


THE GRINGOS 


“ But lie is not here ! If he were — ” The tone 
of him gloated over the picture of what would happen 
in that case. 

“ There shall be no fighting.” If Dade’s voice was 
quiet, it did not carry the impression of weakness, or 
indecision. “ Come to your own fire, Valencia. If it 
is necessary to fight for the Senor Allen — I am also 
his friend.” 

“ You are right. There shall be no fighting.” Dade 
started and glanced at Jose, standing beside him. “ If 
the Senor Allen thinks himself the best, surely it is I, 
who hold the medalla that calls me el vaquero supremo, 
who have the right to question his boast; not you, 
amigos ! ” 

“ Who ’s the best vaquero, the bravest and the best 
in California ? ” queried a voice — the voice of the 
singer, who had come up with others to see what was 
going on here. And at his elbow another made answer 
boldly: 

“Don Jose Pacheco!” 

Jose smiled and lifted his shoulders deprecatingly 
at the tribute, while fifty voices shouted loyally his 
name. Dade, pressing his hand upon Valencia’s shoul- 
der, led him back into the dancing shadows that lay 
between the fires. 

“ Let it go,” he urged. “ Don Jose holds the medal, 


WHEN CAMP-FIRES BLINK 203 


and he ’s entitled to the glory. We must keep peace, 
Valencia, or else I must leave the rodeo. Personal 
quarrels must wait.” 

“ Si, Sehor, personal quarrels must wait,” assented 
Jose, again coming up unexpectedly behind them. “ I 
hut wish to say that I regret the bad manners of those 
Caballeros, whose best excuse is that they are my friends. 
I hope the sehor does not accuse me of spreading the 
news of the senor’s boast. There are others, as the 
sehor well knows, who heard it before even it came to 
my ears.” 

“ It does n’t matter,” Dade repeated. “ They ’ll 
have their joke, and I don’t blame them for putting the 
joke on a stranger, especially when he ’s a gringo — 
and absent.” 

“ The sehor is wise as he is loyal,” stated J ose and 
bowed himself into the shadows. “ Buenos noches, 
Sehor.” 

“ Good-night,” answered Dade, speaking English to 
show he was not ashamed of it; and rolled himself in 
his blankets as a deliberate hint to Valencia that he 
did not want to discuss the incident, much to that 
one’s disappointment. 

It is to be feared that Valencia did not share in 
Dade’s determination to keep the peace; for, before he 
slept, he promised himself that he would yet tell that 


204 


THE GRINGOS 


pig-faced vaquero from Las Uvas what he thought of 
him. But outwardly the incident was closed, and 
closed permanently. 

The sun was not risen above the mountains before 
they were hurriedly drinking their black coffee, and 
making ready to break camp; the flurry of emotions 
seemed to have died with the evening fire. If the men 
of the other camps were cool in their manner towards 
Dade when they met him, at least they were civil; ex- 
cept Manuel, who passed him by with lowered brows, 
and of him Dade took no notice. If he were watched 
curiously, in hope of detecting the awkwardness which 
would betray unfamiliarity with his work, Dade took 
no notice of that, either, except to grin now and then 
when he rode away. Altogether, he was well pleased 
with his reception and inclined to laugh at the forebod- 
ings he had felt; forebodings born of the knowledge 
that, unless these natives of California were minded to 
tolerate the presence of a gringo major domo, it would 
be absolutely useless for him to attempt to work with 
them. 

If he had only known it, his own men had done 
much towards lessening the prejudice of those who 
joined the main outfit. Valencia was not the only one 
of the Picardo vaqueros whose friendship might be 
counted upon. Like Manuel before he became jealous, 


WHEN CAMP-FIRES BLINK 205 


they forgot that Dade was not of Spanish birth; for 
his eyes and his hair were dark as many of the native- 
born Californians, and his speech was as their own; 
he was good-humored, just in his judgments, reason- 
able in his demands. He could tell a good story well 
if he liked, or he could keep silent and listen with that 
sympathetic attention that never fails to flatter the 
teller of a tale. To a man they liked him, and they 
were not slow to show their liking after the manner of 
their kind. 

By the time they reached Tres Pinos, which was the 
rendezvous of all the vaqueros from the Picardo ranch 
on the north to San Miguel on the south, Dade had 
quite lost the constraint that comes of feeling that one 
is disliked and only tolerated for the moment. He 
whistled while he rode along the creek bank looking 
for a comfortable camp site; and when Valencia loped 
up to him, as he was hesitating over a broad, shaded 
strip under a clump of willows, he turned and smiled 
upon his head vaquero. 

“ See, Senor, how well we Californians work to- 
gether!” cried Valencia, pointing pridefully. “ Here 
they come, the vaqueros from Agua Amargo, Durasno, 
Corral de Terre, Salinas — not yet have our embala- 
dors thrown off the ropes from our packs, before they 
are here, these others whom we came to meet! Not 


206 


THE GRINGOS 


one hour late, even! And the word was given weeks 
ago that we would meet this day.” 

From the mouth of the canyon trotted a band of 
saddle horses, kicking up a dust cloud that filmed the 
picture made by the gay caballeros who galloped be- 
hind. A gallant company were they; and when they 
met and mingled with those who came down from the 
north, it was as though a small army was giving itself 
a holiday in that vivid valley, with the Tres Pinos 
gurgling at the fun. 

Having had experience in these matters, Dade was 
able to do his part and do it like a veteran, although 
he tactfully left to the other majordomos all those 
little details that would make of the various camps 
one orderly company. Two men he chose from his out- 
fit and sent to the captain, as the Picardo contribution 
to the detail told off to herd the horses, but beyond that 
he confined himself chiefly to making himself as un- 
obtrusive as was consistent with dignity. 

Six men were sent out after beef ; and although Dade 
had many times in Texas done exactly what they were 
doing, he watched interestedly these Californians at 
their work. 

Cattle were everywhere except in the immediate 
vicinity of the camp. Half a mile or so the vaqueros 
galloped; then two of the leaders singled out a fat, 


WHEN CAMP-FIRES BLINK 207 

young steer and made after him with their riatas 
hissing as the rawhide circled over their heads. 

A loop dropped neatly over the wide horns, and a 
moment later the second settled upon the first. The first 
man turned and headed towards camp with the steer 
at his heels, ready at the slightest opportunity to make 
use of those long, sharp-pointed horns which nature 
had given him for just such need as this. The steer 
quite forgot the man behind, until he made a vicious 
lunge and was checked by the rope that had hung 
slack and unnoticed over his back. Furious, the steer 
turned and charged resentfully at the caballero who 
was following him and shouting taunts. But there 
again he was checked by the first. 

So, charging this way and that; galloping wildly in 
pursuit of the man who seemed to be fleeing for his 
life, or wheeling to do battle with the rider who kept 
just so far in his rear, he was decoyed to the very out- 
skirts of the camp. 

If he had been qualified to weigh motives, the heart 
of that brindle-roan steer would surely have burst at 
the pure effrontery of the thing : not only must he yield 
his life and give his body for meat, that those yearn- 
ing stomachs might be filled with his flesh ; he must 
deliver that meat at the most convenient spot, as a 
butcher brings our chops to the kitchen door. For that 


208 


THE GRINGOS 


purpose alone they were cunningly luring him closer 
and closer, that they need not carry the meat far when 
they had slaughtered him. 

At least his last moments were lighted with hope. 
He made one grand, final dash, tripped in a noose 
that had somehow dropped neatly in the way of his 
front feet, and went down with a crash and a bellow 
of dismay. Some one ran lightly in — he did not see 
that it was the vaquero he had been pursuing all this 
time — and drove a dagger into the brain just back 
of the horns. Thus that particular gust of rage was 
wiped out of existence forever. 

Later, when the camp-fires burned low, the pleasant 
odor of meat broiling upon the forked ends of long, 
willow branches over the red coals, proved how even 
a brindle steer may, at the last, in every savory morsel 
have justified his existence. 

Life in those days was painted upon a big canvas, 
with broad sweep of brushes dipped in vivid colors. Al- 
though the branding of the season’s calves was a matter 
of pure business, the manner in which that work was 
accomplished was a spectacle upon which we of the 
present generation would give much to look. 

When the sun parted the fog and looked down in- 
quisitively, the whole valley was pulsing with life, 
alight with color. The first real work of the rodeo was 


WHEN CAMP-FIRES BLINK 209 

beginning, like the ensemble of some vast, spectacular 
play; and the stage was managed by Nature herself, 
creator of the harmony of colors. The dark, glossy 
green of live oak, the tender green of new willow leaves, 
the pale green of the mustard half buried in the paler 
yellow of its blossoms, had here and there a splash of 
orange and blue, where the poppies were refusing to 
give place to the lupines which April wished to leave 
for May, when she came smiling to dwell for one sweet 
month in the valley. The poppies had had their day. 
March had brought them, and then had gone away and 
left them for the April showers to pelt and play with ; 
and now, when the redwoods on the mountainsides were 
singing that May was almost here, a whole slope of 
poppies lingered rebelliously to nod and peer and preen 
over the delights of the valley just below. The lupines 
were shaking their blue heads distressfully at the im- 
pertinence ; and then here came the vaqueros galloping, 
and even the lupines and poppies forgot their dispute 
in the excitement of watching the fun. 

As the roundups of our modern cattlemen “ ride 
circle,” so did those velvet-jacketed, silver-braided 
horsemen gallop forth in pairs from a common center 
that was the chosen rodeo ground. As if they were 
tracing the invisible spokes of a huge wheel laid flat 
and filling the valley from mountain range to mountain 


210 


THE GRINGOS 


range, they rode out until they had reached the ap- 
proximate rim of the circle. Then, turning, they rode 
more slowly back to the rodeo ground, driving before 
them the cattle they found there. 

Not cattle only ; here and there an antelope herd was 
caught in the circle and ran bewilderedly toward the 
common center; beautiful creatures with great eyes 
beseeching the human things to be kind, even while 
riatas were hissing over their trembling backs. Many 
a rider rode into camp with an antelope haunch tied 
to his gorgeous red and black saddle; and the wooden 
spits held delicious bits of antelope steak that night, 
broiling over the coals while the vaqueros sang old 
Spanish love-songs to lighten the time of waiting. 

A gallant company, they. A care-free, laughter- 
loving, brave company, with every man a rider to make 
his womenfolk prate of his skill to all who would 
listen; with every man a lover of love and of life and 
the primitive joys of life. They worked, that company, 
and they made of their work a game that every man 
of them loved to play. And Dade, loving the things 
they loved and living the life they lived, speedily for- 
got that there was still an undercurrent of antagonism 
beneath that surface of work and play and jokes and 
songs and impromptu riding and roping contests (from 
which Jose Pacheco was laughingly barred because of 


WHEN CAMP-FIRES BLINK 211 


his skill and in which Dade himself was, somehow, 
never invited to join). He forgot that the antagonism 
w T as there — except when he came face to face with 
Manuel, perhaps, or when he chanced to see on the 
face of Jose a brooding look of dissatisfaction, and 
guessed that he was thinking of Jack and Teresita. 


CHAPTER XVI 


“for WEAPONS I CHOOSE RIATAS ” 

T HERE must have been a good deal of gossip 
amongst the vaqueros of the various ranches, as 
they rode on circle or lay upon their saddle blankets 
around the evening camp-fires. As is ever the case 
when a man is young, handsome, rich, and holds proudly 
the gold medal which proclaims him the champion of 
the whole State — the golden disk which many a young 
vaquero longed to wrest from him in a fair test of 
skill — there were those who would rather like to see 
Jose humbled. True, they would never choose an alien 
to do the humbling, and the possibility was discussed 
with various head-shakings amongst themselves. 

But there were the Picardo vaqueros stanchly 
swearing by all the saints they knew that these two 
gringos were not as other gringos; that these two were 
worthy a place amongst true Californians. Could they 
not see that this Senor Hunter was as themselves ? And 
he was not more Spanish in his speech and his ways 
than was the Senor Allen, albeit the Senor Allen’s eyes 


“I CHOOSE RIATAS” 


213 


were blue as the lupines, and bis hair tbe color of the 
madrona bark when it grows dark with age — or nearly 
tbe color. And be could shoot, that blue-eyed one! 

Valencia, having an audience of a dozen or more one 
night, grew eloquent upon tbe prowess of tbe blue-eyed 
one. And tbe audience, listening, vowed that they 
would like to see him matched against Jose, who thought 
himself supreme in everything. 

“ Not in fighting,” amended Valencia, his teeth 
gleaming white in the fire-glow, as he leaned to pull a 
brand from the blaze that he might relight the cigarette 
which had gone out while he told the tale of that run- 
ning fight, when the two Americanos had shamed a 
whole crowd of gringos — for so did Valencia make 
nice distinction of names. 

“Not in fighting, amigos, nor yet in love! And 
because he knows that it is so, the cheeks of Don Jose 
hang slack, and he rides with chin upon his breast, 
when he thinks no one is looking. The medalla oro is 
his, yes. But he would gladly give it for that which 
the Senor Allen possesses. Me, I think that the Senor 
Allen could as easily win also the medalla oro as he 
has won the other prize.” There was a certain fineness 
in Valencia that would never permit his tongue to fling 
the name of the Senorita Teresa amongst these vaqueros ; 
but he was sure that they caught his meaning. 


214 


THE GRINGOS 


“ Dios ! me, I should like to see him try,” cried a 
tall San Vincente rider, shifting his position to ease a 
cramp in his long leg; and his tone was neither con- 
temptuous nor even doubtful, but merely eager for the 
excitement there would be in the spectacle. 

Some one in the shadows turned and walked quickly 
away to another fire-glow with its ring of Rembrandt 
figures and faces, and none save Valencia knew that 
it was Manuel gone to tell his master what had been 
said. V alencia smiled while he smoked. 

Presently Jose was listening unwillingly to Manuel’s 
spite-tinged version of the talk at the San Vincente 
camp. “ The vaqueros are making a mock of thy 
bravery and thy skill ! ” Manuel declared, with more 
passion than truth. “ They would see thee beaten, in 
fight as well as in love — ” 

The stiffening of Jose’s whole figure stopped Manuel 
short but not dissatisfied, for he saw there was no need 
that he should speak a single word more upon the sub- 
ject. 

“ They shall see him try, unless he is a coward.” 
The voice of Jose was muffled by the rage that filled 
him. 

So it came to pass that Manuel saddled his best 
mustang within an hour and rode away to the north. 
And when Valencia strolled artlessly to the Pacheco 


“I CHOOSE RIATAS” 


215 


fire and asked for him, Jose hesitated perceptibly be- 
fore he replied that Manuel had gone home with a 
message to the foreman there. 

Valencia grinned his widest when he heard thaf, 
and over two cigarettes he pondered the matter. Being 
a shrewd young man with an instinct for nosing out 
mysteries, he flung all uncertainty away with the stub 
of his second cigarette and sought Dade. 

He found him standing alone beside a deep, still pool, 
staring at the shadows and the moon-painted picture in 
the middle, and looking as if his thoughts were gone 
on far journeys. Valencia was too full of his news to 
heed the air of absolute detachment that surrounded 
Dade. He went straight to the heart of his subject 
and as a precaution against eavesdropping he put his 
meaning into the best English he knew. 

“ Jose, she ’s dam-mad on Senor Jack,” he began 
eagerly. “ She ’s hear talk lak she ’s no good vaquero. 
Me, I hear San Vincente vaqueros talk, and Manuel 
she’s hear also and run queeck for tella Jose. Jose 
she’s lak for keela Senor Jack. Manuel, she’s ride 
lak hell for say Jose, she lak for fight Senor Jack. 
Me, I theenk Senor Jack keela Jose pretty dam- 
queeck ! ” 

Dade had come to know Valencia very well; he 
turned now and eyed him with some suspicion. 


216 


THE GRINGOS 


“ Are you sure?” lie asked, in the tone that de- 
manded a truthful answer. He had seen Manuel ride 
away in the white light of the moon, and he had won- 
dered a little and then had forgotten all about it in the 
spell of utter loneliness which the moon brings to those 
who are cheated by Fate from holding what they most 
desire. 

“ Sure, me.” Valencia’s tone was convincingly 
positive. “ Manuel, she ’s go lak hell for tella Senor 
Jack, Jose, she ’s lak for fight duelo. Sure. That ’s 
right.” 

Dade swung hack and stared moodily at the moon- 
painted pool where the trout, deceived by the brightness 
into thinking it was day, started widening ripple-rings 
here and there, where they flicked the surface with 
slaty noses; and the wavering rings were gold-tipped 
until they slid into the shadows and were lost. Dade 
watched three rings start in the center and ripple the 
whole pool. 

“ How quick could you get to the rancho ? ” he asked 
abruptly, just as Valencia’s spirits were growing heavy 
with disappointment. “ Could you overtake Manuel, 
do you think ? ” 

“ Me, I could with the caballo which I have in mind 
— Noches — I could pass Manuel upon the way, though 
he had two more hours the start of me ! ” English was 


“I CHOOSE RIATAS” 


217 


too slow now for Valencia’s eagerness. u Manuel is 
fat, and he is not young, and he will not ride too fast 
for his fat to endure. Also he will stop at the Pacheco 
hacienda for breakfast, and to rest his hones. Me, I 
can be at the rancho two hours before Manuel, Senor.” 

Valencia was not a deceitful young man, as deceit 
goes; but he wanted very much to be sent in haste to 
the ranch, for he was itching with curiosity to know 
the truth of this matter and if he were indeed right. 
If Manuel had gone bearing a challenge from Jose to 
the Senor Jack, then he wanted to know the answer as 
soon as possible. Also there was Felice, the daughter 
of Carlos, whose lips lured him with their sweetness. 
Truly, Valencia would promise any miracle of speed. 

The pool lay calm as the face of a dead child. Dade 
stooped and tossed a pebble into it as if that stillness 
troubled him. He took his cigarette from his lips, 
looked at the glowing tip, and over it at the eager 
face of Valencia. 

“ We must n’t let them fight. Take Hoches and ride 
like the devil was at your heels. Get there ahead of 
Manuel and tell Jack — ” He stopped there and bit 
his lips to hurry his slow thoughts. “ Tell J ack he must 
go to town right away, because — well, tell him Bill 
Wilson — ” 

Valencia’s face had been lengthening comically, but 


2 18 


THE GRINGOS 


hope began to live again in his eyes. “ If the senor 
would write what he wishes to say while I am making 
ready for the start, he will then have more time to 
think of what is best. The moon will ride clear to- 
night; and the sun will find me at the rancho, Senor. 
Me, I have ridden Noches one hundred miles without 
rest, before now; these sixty will be play for us both.” 

“Gracias, Valencia.” Dade dropped a hand grate- 
fully upon the shoulder of the other. “ I ’ll write a 
note, hut you must do your part also. You know your 
people, and I know J ack ; if those two fight, the trouble 
will spread like fire in the grass; for Don Jose has 
many friends to take up the quarrel. You ? ve had a 
long day in the saddle, amigo, and the sixty miles will 
not be play. I would not ask it if the need were less 
urgent — but you must beat Manuel. If you don’t, 
Jack will accept the challenge; and once be does 
that — ” he flung out both hands in his characteristic 
gesture of impatience or helplessness. 

“ Si, Senor. If the saints permit, Manuel shall not 
see him first.” It was like Valencia to shift the re- 
sponsibility from his own conscience to the shoulders 
of the saints, for now he could ride with a lighter heart. 
Perhaps he was even sincere when he made the promise ; 
hut there were sixty miles of moonlight in which his 
•desire could ride with him and tempt him; and of a 


“I CHOOSE RIATAS” 219 

truth, Valencia did greatly desire to see those two come 
together in combat ! 

The saints were kind to Valencia, hut they were also 
grimly just. Because he so greatly desired an excuse 
for delay, they tricked Hoches with a broken willow 
branch that in the deceptive moonlight appeared to be 
hut the shadow of the branch above it. It caught him 
just under an outflung knee as he galloped and flipped 
him neatly, heels to the stars. He did not struggle to- 
his feet even when Valencia himself, a bit dazed by 
the fall, pulled upon the reins and called to him to rise* 
The horse lay inert, a steaming, black mass in the road. 
The moon was sliding down behind the Santa Crux 
Mountains, and the chill breeze whispered that dawn 
was coming fast upon the trail of the moonbeams. 

Valencia, when he saw that Hoches would never gal- 
lop again, because he had managed to break his sweat- 
lathered neck in the fall, sat down beside the trail and 
rolled a corn-husk cigarette. His mood swung from 
regret over the passing of as fleet and true a horse as 
ever he bestrode, to gratitude to the saints for their 
timely hindrance of his prompt delivery of the note. 
Truly it was now no fault of his that he could never 
reach the hacienda before Manuel ! He would have 
to walk and carry his saddle, heavy with silver and 
wide skirts of stamped leather; and he was a long 


220 


THE GRINGOS 


way from the end of his journey, when he must cover 
the distance with his own feet. Eight or ten miles, 
he estimated it roughly; for he had passed Jose’s 
hacienda some time before, and had resisted the temp- 
tation to turn aside and find out if Manuel were there 
or had gone on. He had not passed Manuel in the 
trail as he had boasted that he would do, and not once 
had he glimpsed him anywhere, though there had been 
places where the road lay straight, and he could see it 
clear in the moonlight for a mile or more. 

When he had finished the cigarette and his thanks 
to Eate — or whatever power had delayed him — he 
removed his saddle and bridle from the horse and went 
on; and it was then that he began to understand that 
he must do a penance for desiring war rather than 
peace amongst his fellows. Valencia, after the first 
hour of tramping with his saddle on his shoulders, 
had lost a good deal of his enthusiasm for the duel he 
felt sure was already a certainty. 

When he left the road for a straight cut to 
the hacienda, the wild range cattle hindered him 
with their curiosity, so that, using all the methods 
known to a seasoned vaquero for driving them back, 
his progress had been slow. But he finally came out 
into the road again and was plodding along the stone 
wall within half a mile of the house, his face very 


“I CHOOSE RIATAS” 


221 


disconsolate because of his protesting feet and the 
emptiness in his stomach, when Manuel himself con- 
fronted him suddenly coming from the house. 

Manuel was looking well pleased with himself, in 
spite of his night ride. He pulled up and stared wide- 
eyed at Valencia, who had no smile with which to 
greet him but swore instead a pensive oath. 

“ Dios ! Is it for a wager that you travel thus ? ” 
grinned Manuel, abominably comfortable upon a great, 
sorrel horse that pranced all round Valencia in its 
anxiety to be upon its way home. “ Look you, Valencia ! 
Since you are traveling, you had best go and tell the 
padres to make ready the sacrament for your gringo 
friend, that blue-eyed one; for truly his time on earth 
is short ! ” 

Valencia, at that, looked up into Manuel’s face and 
smiled in spite of the pain in his feet and the emptiness 
in his stomach. 

“ Does it please you, then, Valencia? All night I 
rode to bear a message to that blue-eyed one who thinks 
himself supremo in all things; a challenge from Don 
Jose, to fight a duelo if he is not a coward ; so did Jose 
write. 1 Unless you are afraid to meet me 9 — and the 
vanity of that blue-eyed one is great, Valencia. Of a 
truth, the man is loco. What think you, Valencia? 
He had the right to choose the weapons — and J ose 


222 THE GRINGOS 

believed that he would choose those pistols of which 
you make so much talk. Madre de Dios! What says 
the blue-eyed one, then ? — and laughed in my face 
while he spoke the words! ‘Go tell Don Jose I will 
fight him whenever and wherever he likes ; and for 
weapons I choose riatas.’ Heard you anything — ” 

“Riatas!” Valencia’s jaw dropped an inch before 
he remembered that Manuel’s eyes were sharp and 
eager to read the thoughts of a man in the twitching 
muscles of his face. 

“ Si, riatas ! ” Manuel’s whole fat body shook with 
laughter. “ Even you, who are wholly bewitched by 
those gringos, even you are dismayed! Tell me, 
Valencia, have you seen him lasso anything.? ” 

But V alencia, having pulled himself together, merely 
lifted his shoulders and smiled wisely, so that even 
Manuel was almost deceived into believing that Valen- 
cia’s faith was great because it was built upon a 
secret knowledge of what the blue-eyed one could do. 

“ Me, I heard you boasting to those San Vincente 
vaqueros,” Manuel accused, shifting the talk to gen- 
eralities. “ And the Senor Hunter boasts also that the 
blue-eyed one is supremo with the riata, as he is with 
everything else ! ” The tone of Manuel was exceeding 
bitter. “ Well, he will have the chance to prove what 
he can do. Ho gringo can come among us Californians 


“I CHOOSE RIATAS” 


223 


and flap the wings and crow upon the tule thatch for 
naught. There has been overmuch crowing, Valencia. 
Me, I am glad that boaster must do something more 
than crow upon the thatch, Valencia! ” 

“ Si, there has been overmuch crowing,” Valencia 
retorted, giving to his smile the lift that made it a 
sneer, “ but the thatch has not been of Picardo tules. 
Me, I think they grew within hearing of the mission 
hells of Santa Clara! And the gallo [rooster] which 
crows is old and fat, and feeds too much upon the- 
grapes that are sour! Adios! I must haste to give 
congratulations to the Senor Jack, that he will have 
opportunity to wring the necks of those loud-crowing 
gallos of the Pacheco thatches.” 

Whereupon he picked up his saddle and walked on, 
very straight in the back and patently unashamed of 
the injustice of his charge; for it was the crowing of 
Valencia himself beside the San Vincente camp-fire 
that had brought Manuel with the message, and Valen- 
cia knew that perfectly well. 

The family of Don Andres had been breakfasting 
upon the wide veranda when Manuel strode grimly 
across the patio and confronted them. They were still 
seated there when Valencia, having deposited his rid- 
ing gear at the saddle-hut, limped to the steps and stood 
with his sunny smile upon his face and his sombrero 


224 


THE GRINGOS 

brim trailing the dust. It seemed to Valencia that the 
don was displeased; he read it in the set of his head, 
in the hardness that was in his glance, in a certain in- 
flexible quality of his voice. 

“ Ah, Valencia,” he said, rising as if the interrup- 
tion was to put an end to his lingering there, “ you also 
seem to have ridden in haste from the rodeo. Truly, 
I think that same rodeo has been but the breeding- 
ground of gossip and ill-feeling, and is like to bear 
bitter fruit. Well, you have a message, I ’ll warrant. 
What is it ? ” 

Valencia’s mien was respectful almost to the point 
of humility. “ The majordomo sent me with a letter, 
which I was to deliver into the hands of the Senor Al- 
len,” he said simply. “ My hope was that I might arrive 
before Manuel ” — he caught a flicker of wrath in 
the eyes of the don at the name and smiled inwardly 
— “ but the moonlight played tricks upon the trail, and 
my caballo tripped upon a willow-branch and fell upon 
his head so that his neck was twisted. I was forced 
to walk and carry the saddle, and there were times when 
the cattle interrupted with their foolish curiosity, and 
I must stop and set the riata hissing to frighten them 
back, else they would perchance have trampled me. So 
I fear that I arrive too late, Don Andres. But truly 
I did my best; a full hour behind Manuel I started. 


“I CHOOSE RIATAS” 225 

and have walked ten miles of the sixty. The saints 
know well — ” 

Don Andres checked his apologies with a wave of 
the hand, and sat down somewhat heavily in his favorite 
chair, as if he were tired, though the day was but 
fairly begun. 

a We do not doubt your zeal,” he observed dryly. 
“ Give the letter to the senor and begone to your break- 
fast. And,” he added impressively, “ wait you and 
rest well until the answer is ready ; for perchance there 
will be further need to test the kindness of the saints — 
and the speed of a horse.” 

Valencia fumbled within his sash and brought forth 
the small, folded square of paper, went up two steps 
and placed it in Jack’s upturned palm, gave Jack also 
a glance more kindly and loyal than ever he had re- 
ceived from that minx, Teresita, and went away to 
the vaqueros r quarters. Valencia had learned nothing 
from the meeting, except that the don was in one of 
his rare fits of ill-temper. 

“ Yet I know that there will be a duelo,” he com- 
forted himself with thinking, as he limped wearily 
across the patio. “ The face of the patron is black be- 
cause of it, and a little devil-flame bums in the eyes 
of the senorita because for love of her men would 
fight — (Such is the way of women, to joy in those 


226 


THE GRINGOS 


things which should give them fear !) — and the 
senora’s face is sagged with worry, and Senor Jack — 
ah, there is the fighting look in those eyes ! Never have 
I seen them so dark : like the bay when a storm is riding 
upon the wind. And it will be riatas — for so Manuel 
told me. Me, I will wager my saddle upon the Senor 
Jack, even though riatas be the weapons. For he is 
wily, that blue-eyed one ; never would he choose the raw- 
hide unless he knew its hiss as he knows his own heart- 
beats. Let it be riatas, then, if so the senor chooses ! ” 


CHAPTER XVII 


A FIESTA WE SHALL HAVE 

J ACK, unfolding the crumpled paper, read twice 
the note from Dade, and at each reading gave a 
little snort. He folded the paper, unfolded it and read 
again : 

" Dear Jack, 

“ If Jose wants to fight, take a fool’s advice and don't. Bet- 
ter quit the ranch and go back to town for a while — Valencia will 
get there ahead of Manuel, he says, and you can pull out before 
Manuel shows up. A licking might do Jose good, but it would stir 
up a lot of trouble and raise hell all around, so crawl into any hole 
you come to. I '11 quit as soon as rodeo is over, and meet you in 
town. Now don’t be bull-headed. Let your own feelings go into 
the discard for once, and do what’s best for the whole valley. Every- 
thing ’s going smooth here. Noah’s dove ain’t got any the best of me 
and Jose, and the boys are working fine. 

*• Dade." 

“ At least your majordomo agrees with you, Don 
Andres,” he said, twisting the note unthinkingly in 
his fingers. “ Dade wants me to sneak off to town and 
hide in Bill Wilson’s cellar.” There was more resent- 
ment in his tone than the note itself had put there ; for 
the argument which Valencia had unwittingly inter- 
rupted had been threatening to become acrimonious. 


228 


THE GRINGOS 


“ My majordomo,” replied Don Andres, his habitual 
courtesy just saving the words from becoming a retort, 
“ continues to show that rare good sense which first 
attracted me to him.” 

The senora moved uneasily in her chair and smiled 
deprecatingly at Jack, then imploringly at her husband. 
This was washing day, and those shiftless ones within 
would overlook half the linen unless she was on the 
spot to watch and direct. But these two had come to 
their first clash of wills, and her husband had little 
liking for such firm defiance of his wishes. Well she 
knew the little weather-signs in his face. When his 
eyebrows took just that tilt, and when the nostrils were 
drawn in and quivered with his breathing, then was it 
wise that she should remain by his side. The senora 
knew well that words are never so harsh between the 
male of our species when their women are beside them. 
So, suffering mental torment because of the careless 
peonas, she, nevertheless, sent Teresita after the fine, 
linen apron from which she meant to remove a whole 
two inches of woof for the new pattern of drawnwork 
which the Donna Lucia had sent her. She would re- 
main as a buffer between these two whose eyes were too 
hard when they looked at each other. 

“ It seems a pity that young men nowadays cannot 
contain themselves without quarreling,” sighed the 


A FIESTA WE SHALL HAVE 229 


senora, acting upon the theory that anger is most dan- 
gerous when it is silent, and so giving the conversational 
hall a push. 

“ Is there no way, Senor, in which you might avert 
this trouble? Truly it saddens me to think of it, 
for Jose has been as my own son. His mother and I 
were as twin sisters, Senor, and his mother prayed me 
to watch over him when she had gone. ‘ Si, madre 
mia ’ would he tell me, when I gave him the good 
counsel. And now he comes no more, and he wants to 
fight the duelo ! Is there no way, Senor ? ” 

The hardness left Jack’s lips but not his eyes, while 
he looked from her to the don, smoking imperturbably 
his cigar beside her. 

“ There is no way, Senora, except for a coward. I 
have done what I could; I know that Jose’s skill is 
great with riatas, and the choice was mine. I might 
have said pistols,” he reminded her gently, but with 
meaning. 

The plump hands of the senora went betrayingly into 
the air and her ear-rings tinkled with the horror that 
shook her cushiony person. “ Hot pistols ! Ho, no — 
for then Jose would surely be killed! Gracias, Senor! 
With riatas my Jose can surely give good account of 
himself. Three times has he won the medalla oro in 
fair contest. He is a wizard with the rawhide. My- 


230 THE GRINGOS 

self, I have wept with pride to see him throw it at the 
fiestas — ” 

“ Mother mine, Margarita would have you come at 
once,” the senorita interrupted her. “ Little Fran- 
cisco has burned his legs with hot water, and Margarita 
thinks that your poultice — ” 

With twittering exclamations of dismay over thq 
accident the two women hurried aw T ay to minister to 
the burned legs of Francisco, and Jack rose and flung 
away his cigarette. His mouth had again the stubborn 
look which Dade knew so well, and dreaded also. 

“ I am sorry for this unpleasantness,” he said per- 
functorily, stopping before Don Andres. “ But as I 
told the senora, I have done all that I can do. I have 
named riatas. I don’t think even you, Don Andres, 
could ask more of me. Surely you wouldn’t want to 
know that your roof had sheltered a coward ? ” 

Don Andres waved away the challenge which the 
question carried. “ Still, it seems a pity that my family 
must be made the subject of gossip because of the fool- 
ishness of two young men,” he said doggedly, return- 
ing to his argument. “ They will say that it is because 
of my daughter that you fight; and the friendship of 
years must be set aside while two hot-heads vent their 
silly spite — ” 

“ It need not.” Jack’s head went up an inch. “ I 


A FIESTA WE SHALL HAVE 231 

can leave your employ, Don Andres, at any moment. 
There is no need for you to be caught between the 
duties of hospitality and those of friendship. I can do 
anything — I am willing to do anything — except crawl 
into a hole, as Dade wrote for me to do.” A fine, 
spirited picture he made, standing there with the flames 
of wrath in his eyes and with neck stiff and his jaws 
set hard together. 

Don Andres looked up at him with secret approval. 
He did not love a coward, and truly, this young fellow 
w r as brave. And J ose had deliberately sought the quar- 
rel from the first; justice compelled him to remember 
that. 

“ If it might be .arranged — ” The don was studying 
the situation and the man together. “ Almost have I 
grasped the thread that will unravel the whole. Ho, no ! 
I do not mean your going, Senor. That would but 
limber the tongue of scandal ; and besides, I do not mean 
that I withdraw my friendship from you. A man must 
be narrow, indeed, if he cannot carry more than one 
friendship in his soul. 

“ Sit you down, Senor, while I think a moment,” he 
urged. “ Surely it can be arranged without hurt to the 
fair name of — of any. Kiatas — ah, now I have it, 
Senor! Dullard, not to have thought of it at once! 
Truly must I be in my dotage ! ” He did not mean 


232 


THE GRINGOS 


that, of course, and he was quite openly pleased when 
Jack smiled and shook his head. 

“ Listen, Senor, and tell me if the plan is not a good 
one ! To-morrow V alencia shall ride back to the rodeo, 
with a message to all from me, Don Andres Picardo. 
I shall proclaim a fiesta, Senor — such a fiesta as even 
Monterey never rivaled in the good old days when we 
were subject to his Majesty, the King. A fiesta we shall 
have, as soon as may be after the rodeo is over. There 
will be sports such as you Americanos know nothing of, 
Senor. And there openly, before all the people, you 
shall contest with Jose for a prize which I shall give, 
and for the medalla oro if you will; for you shall 
have the privilege of challenging Jose, the champion, 
to contest for the medalla. And there will be a prize — 
and I doubt not — ” He was thinking that there would 
probably be two prizes, though only one which he could 
proclaim publicly. 

“ Myself, I shall write to J ose and beg him to con- 
sider the honor of his father’s name and of the name 
of his father’s friend, and consent that the duelo shall 
take place under the guise of sport. It must not be 
to the death, Senor. Myself, I shall insist that it shall 
not be to the death. Before all the people, and women, 
and ninos — and besides, I do not wish that Jose 
should — ” There again he checked himself, and 


A FIESTA WE SHALL HAVE 233 

Jack’s lips twitched at the meaning he read into the 
break. 

“ But if there should be an accident? ” Jack’s eyes 
probed for the soul of the old man ; the real soul of the 
Spanish grandee under the broad-minded, easy-natured, 
Californian gentleman. He probed, and he thought 
he found what he was seeking; he thought it showed 
for just an instant in his eyes and in the upward lift 
of his white mustache. 

“ An accident would be deplorable, Senor,” he said. 
“ We will hope that there will be no accident. Still, 
Jose is a very devil when the riata is hissing over his 
head, and he rides recklessly. Senor, permit me to 
warn you that Jose is a demon in the saddle. Hot 
for nothing does he hold the medalla oro.” 

u Gracias, Don Andres. I shall remember,” said 
Jack, and walked away to the stables. 

He felt that the heart of Don Andres Picardo was 
warring with his intelligence. That although his wide 
outlook and his tolerance would make friends of the 
gringos and of the new government — and quite sin- 
cerely — still, the heart of him was true Spanish; and 
the fortunes of his own blood-kin would send it beating 
fast or slow in sympathy, while his brain weighed 
nicely the ethics of the struggle. Jack was not much 
given to analyzing the inner workings of a man’s mind 


234 THE GRINGOS 

and heart, but he carried with him a conviction that it 
was so. 

He hunted up Diego, and found him putting a deal 
of gratuitous labor upon the silver trimmings of the 
new saddle. Diego being the peon in whose behalf 
Jack had last winter interfered with Perkins, his 
gratitude took the form of secret polishings upon the 
splendid riding-gear, the cleaning of Jack’s boots and 
such voluntary services. Now the silver crescents 
which Teresita ridiculed were winking up at him to 
show they could grow no brighter, and he was attacking 
vigorously the “ milky way ” that rode behind the high 
cantle. Diego grinned bashfully when Jack’s shadow 
flung itself across the saddle and so announced his 
coming, and stood up and waited humbly before the 
white senor who had fought for him, a mere peon, born 
to kicks and cursings rather than to kindness, and so 
had won the very soul of him. 

“ Bueno,” praised Jack patronizingly. “ Now I have 
some real work for you, Diego, and it must be done 
quickly and well.” 

“ Gracias, Senor,” murmured Diego, abashed by 
such favor, and bowed low before his god. 

“ The riata must be dressed now, Diego, and dressed 
until it is soft as a silken cord, sinuous as the green 
snakes that live in the streams, and not one strand must 


A FIESTA WE SHALL HAVE 235 

be frayed and weakened. Sabe? Too long have I 
neglected to have it done, and now it must be done in 
haste — and done well. Can you dress it so that it will 
be the most perfect riata in California, Diego ? ” A 
twinkle was in Jack’s eyes, but Diego was too dazzled 
by the graciousness of his god to see it there. He made 
obeisance more humble than before. 

“ Si, Senor,” he promised breathlessly. “ Never 
has riata been dressed as this riata shall be. By the 
Holy Mother I swear it.” 

“ Bueno. For listen ! Much may hang upon the 
strength and the softness of it.” He fixed his eyes 
sternly upon the abject one. “ It may mean my life or 
my death, Diego. For in a contest with Don Jose 
Pacheco will I use it.” 

“ Si, Senor,” gasped Diego, awed into trembling. 
“ By my soul I swear — ” 

“ You need n’t. Save some of your energy for the 
rawhide. You ’ll want all you ’ve got before you ’re 
through.” Jack, having made an impression deep 
enough to satisfy the most exacting of masters, dropped 
to his natural tone and speech. “ Get some one to help, 
and come with me to the orchard.” 

From the saddle-house he brought the six-strand, raw- 
hide riata which Manuel had bought for him and which 
his carelessness had left still stiff and unwieldy, and 


236 THE GRINGOS 

walked slowly into the orchard, examining critically 
each braided strand as he went. Manuel, he decided, 
was right ; the riata was perfect. 

Diego, trailing two horsehair ropes and carrying a 
stout, smooth stick of oak that had evidently been used 
before for the work, came running after Jack as if he 
were going to put out a fire. Behind him trotted a 
big, muscular peon who saw not half the reason for 
haste that blazoned itself across the soul of Diego. 

Thus the three reached the orchard, where Jack 
selected two pear trees that happened to stand a few 
feet more than the riata length apart ; and Diego, slip- 
ping a hair rope through the hondo of the riata, made 
fast the rope to a pear tree. The other end he tied 
to the second hair rope, drew the riata taut and tied 
the rope securely to the second tree. He picked up the 
oaken stick, examined it critically for the last time, 
although he knew well that it was polished smooth as 
glass from its work on other riatas, twisted the riata 
once around it and signed to the other peon. 

Each grasping an end of the stick and throwing all 
their weight against it, they pushed it before them 
along the stretched riata. As they strained toward the 
distant pear tree the rawhide smoked with the friction 
of the stick in the twist. It was killing work, that 
first trip from tree to tree, but Diego joyed in thus 


A FIESTA WE SHALL HAVE 237 

serving Lis blue-eyed god. As for the other, Roberto, 
he strained stolidly along the line, using the strength 
that belonged to his master the patron just as matter- 
of-factly as he had used it since he was old enough to 
be called a man. 

Jack, leaning against a convenient tree in the next 
row, smoked a cigarette and watched their slow, toil- 
some progress. Killing work it was, but the next trip 
would be easier after that rendering of the stiff tissue. 
When the stick touched the hondo, the two stopped and 
panted for a minute; then Diego grasped his end of 
the stick and signaled the return trip. Again it took 
practically every ounce of strength they had in their 
muscular bodies, but they could move steadily now, 
instead of in straining, spasmodic jerks. The rawhide 
sizzled where it curled around the stick. They reached 
the end and stopped, and Jack commanded them to sit 
down and have a smoke before they did more. 

“ It is nothing, Senor. We can continue, since the 
senor has need of haste,” panted Diego, brushing from 
his eyes the sweat that dripped from his eyebrows. 

“ Kot such haste that you need to kill yourselves at 
it,” grinned Jack, and went to examine the riata. Those 
two trips had accomplished much towards making it a 
pliable, live thing in the hands of one skilled to direct 
its snaky dartings here and there, wherever one willed 


238 


THE GRINGOS 


it to go. Many trips it would require before the riata 
was perfect, and then — 

“ The senor is early at his prayers,” observed a soft, 
mocking voice behind him. 

Jack dropped the riata and turned, his whole face 
smiling a welcome. But Teresita was in one of her per- 
verse moods and the mockery was not all in her voice ; 
her eyes were maddeningly full of it as she looked from 
him to the stretched riata. 

“ The senor is wise to tell the twists in his riata 
as I tell my beads — a prayer for each,” she cooed. 
“ For truly he will need the prayers, and a riata that 
will perform miracles of its own accord, if he would 
fight Jose with rawhide.” There was the little twist 
of her lips afterward which Jack had come to know 
well and to recognize as a bull recognizes the red serape 
of the matador. 

“ Senor,” she added impressively, holding back her 
hair from blowing across her face and gazing at him 
wide-eyed, with a wicked assumption of guileless inno- 
cence, “ at the Mission San Jose there is a very old 
and very wise woman. She lives in a tule hut behind 
the very walls of the Mission, and the Indians go to 
her by night when dreams have warned them that death 
threatens. She is a terribly wise old woman, Senor, for 
she can look into the past and part the curtain which 


A FIESTA WE SHALL HAVE 239 


hides the future. For gold will she part it. And for 
gold will she put the curse or the blessing where curse 
or blessing is needed most. Go you to the old woman 
and have her put a blessing upon the riata when it is 
dressed and you have prayed your prayers upon it, 
Senor ! For five pesos will she bless it and command 
it to fly straight wherever the senor desires that it shall 
fly. Then can you meet Jose and not tremble so that 
the spur-bells tinkle.” 

Jack went hot inside of him, hut he made his lips 
smile at the jest ; for so do brave men try to make light 
of torment, whether it he fire or flood or the tongue 
of the woman they love. 

“ All right,” he said. “ And I think I ’ll have the 
judges rule that the fight shall be at fifty paces, as I 
would if we were to fight with pistols.” He tried to 
keep his irritation out of his voice, but there must have 
been enough to betray him. 

For Teresita smiled pleasedly and sent another barb. 
“ It would be wise. For truly, Jose’s equal has never 
been seen, and caballeros I have known who would 
swear that Jose’s riata can stretch to fifty paces and 
more to find its mark.” 

“ Is it anxiety for me that makes you so solicitous ? ” 
demanded Jack, speaking low so that the peons could 
not overhear. 


240 


THE GRINGOS 


“ Perhaps — and perhaps it is pride ; for I know 
well the skill and the bravery of my Jose.” Again 
the twist of her pretty, pouting lips, blood-red and 
tempting. 

Her Jose! Por just a minute the face of Teresita 
showed vague to him before his wrathful eyes. 

“ When you tell your beads again, Senorita,” he ad- 
vised her crisply, “ say a prayer or two for your Jose 
also. For I promise you now that I will shame him 
before your face, and if he lives afterward to seek your 
sympathy, it will be by grace of my mercy ! ” 

“ Santa Maria, what a fierce senor ! ” Her laughter 
mocked him. “ Till the fiesta I shall pray — for 
you ! ” Then she turned and ran, looking over her 
shoulder now and again to laugh at him. 

Always before, when she had teased and flouted and 
fled laughing, Jack had pursued ber with long strides, 
and in the first sequestered nook had made her lips 
pay a penalty. But this time he stood still and let her 
go — which must have puzzled the senorita very much, 
and perhaps piqued her pride as well. For the girl 
who flouts and then flees laughing surely invites pur- 
suit and an inexorable exaction of the penalty. And if 
she is left to flee in safety, then must the flouted one 
pay for his stupidity, and pay high in the coin of love. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


WHAT IS LOVE WORTH ? 


ALEHCIA swung down from his belathered 



V horse as lightly as though he had not spent seven 
hours in the saddle and during those seven hours had 
covered more miles than he would have years to live. 
His smile was wide and went as deep as his emotions 
had thus far plumbed his nature, and his voice had the 
exultant note of a child who has wonderful news to 
tell. He gave Dade a letter, and his very gesture was 
triumphant; and the eyes were eager that watched his 
majordomo read. He bubbled with words that he would 
like to say, but he waited. 

“ So you did n’t get there in time, after all,” Dade 
observed, looking up from Jack’s characteristic signa- 
ture, in which the tail of the “ k ” curled around the 
whole like a mouse lying asleep. “ Manuel came back 
this morning, and the whole camp is talking nothing hut 
duelo. I thought you said — ” 

“ Senor, the saints would not permit that I should 
arrive first,” Valencia explained virtuously. “ A stick 


242 


THE GRINGOS 


tripped Noches and he fell, and broke his neck in the 
fall. The sehor knows well the saints had a hand in 
that, for hundreds of horses fall every day thus without 
hurt. Never before in my life have I seen a horse die 
thus, Senor! I was compelled to walk and carry the 
saddle, yet such haste I made that Manuel met me by 
the stone wall as he was leaving. And at least twelve 
miles I walked — ” 

“ Oh, all right,” Dade waved away further apology. 
“ I reckon you did your best ; it can’t be helped now. 
They ’re going to fight with riatas, Manuel says. 
Is that right ? ” 

“ But not the duelo, Senor — no, but in the contest. 
For sport, that all may witness and choose who is 
champion, after the bull-fighting, and the — ” 

“ What are you talking about, man ? ” Dade’s hand 
fell heavily upon the shoulder of Valencia, swaying 
his whole body with the impact. “ Are you loco, to 
talk of bull-fightings ? ” 

“ It is the fiesta, Senor ! The patron himself has 
proclaimed the grand fiesta, such as they have in 
Monterey, only this will be greater; and then those 
two will fight their duelo with riatas, yes; but not to 
the death, Senor. The patron himself has declared it. 
For the medalla oro and also for a prize will they fight; 
and the prize — what think you, Senor ? ” 


WHAT IS LOVE WORTH? 243 


Valencia, a-quiver with eagerness, laid a slim hand 
upon the braided front of Dade’s close-fitting buck- 
skin jacket. 

“ The prize will be Solano ! That beautiful caballo 

— beautiful even as thy Surry — which the patron has 
not permitted rawhide to touch, except for the brand- 
ing. Like the sunshine he is, with his hair of gold; 
and the tail that waves to his heels is like the ripples 
on the bay at sunrise. Who wins the duelo shall have 
Solano for his own, and shall ride him before all the 
people; for such is the patron’s word. From his own 
lips I heard it! Me, I think that will be the greatest 
sport of all, for he is wild as the deer on the mountain 
slopes — that yellow caballo, and strong as the bull 
which the patron will choose to fight the grizzly he will 
bring from the mountains. 

“ Listen, Senor ! The mother of Solano was a she- 
devil under the saddle, and killed two men by throwing 
herself upon them; and the sire was Satanas, of whom 
stories are told around the camp-fires as far south as 
San Luis Obispo. 

“ Ah, he is wise, the patron ! ‘ Then let them also 

prove their courage in other ways. Let the victor pray 
to the saints and ride Solano, who is five years old and 
has never felt the riata since he left his mother’s side 

— who was a devil.’ Me, I heard the soul of the 


244 THE GRINGOS 

patron speak thus, while the lips of the patron said to 
me: 

“ ‘ Go back to the rodeo, Valencia, and proclaim to 
all that I will give the grand fiesta with sports to please 
all. Tell them that already two have agreed to contest 
with riatas for a prize — ’ Look you, Senor, how 
wily is the patron ! — ‘ And for the prize I name the 
gelding, Solano, who has never known weight of saddle. 
Tell them, Valencia, that the victor shall ride his prize 
for all the crowd to see. And if he is thrown, then 
Solano will be forfeit to the other, who must ride him 
also. There will be other sports and other prizes, 
Valencia, and others may contest in riding, in the 
lassoing and tying of wild steers, in running. But 
say that Don Jose Pacheco and the Senor Jack Allen 
will contest with riatas for the possession of Solano.’ 
Ah, Senor — ” 

“Ah, Valencia, why not scatter some of your en- 
thusiasm over the other camp-fires ? ” Dade broke in 
quizzically. “ Go and proclaim it, then. Tell the San 
Vincente men, and the Las Uvas, and all the other 
vaqueros.” 

Valencia grinned and departed, leaving behind him 
in the loose sand tracks more than three feet apart 
to show how eager was his obedience; and Dade sat 
down upon a dead log that had been dragged to the 


WHAT IS LOVE WORTH? 245 

Picardo camp-fire, to consider how this new phase of 
the affair would affect the temper of the people who 
owned such warm hearts and such hot heads. 

A fiesta, with the duelo fought openly under the 
guise of a contest for the medal and a prize which was 
well worth any man’s best efforts — surely, Don 
Andres was wily, as Valencia said. But with all the 
people of the valley there to see, their partisanship in- 
flamed by the wine of festivity and the excitement of 
the sports themselves — what then 1 

Dade thoughtfully rolled a corn-husk cigarette, and 
tried to peer into the future. As it looked to him, he 
and Jack were rather between the devil and the deep 
sea. If Jack were beaten, they would be scorned and 
crowed over and humiliated beyond endurance. Neither 
was made of the stuff to stand much of that, and they 
would probably wind up with both hands and their 
hats full of trouble. And to himself he admitted that 
there was a fair chance of that very result. He had 
not been blind, and Jose had not shrunk into the back- 
ground when there was riata-work and riding to be done 
on the rodeo ground. Dade had watched him as jeal- 
ously as it was in his nature to do, and the eyes of 
jealousy are keen indeed; and he had seen Jose make 
many throws, and never a miss. Which, if you know 
anything of rope-work, was a remarkable record for 


246 


THE GRINGOS 


any man. So there was a good chance of Jose winning 
that fight. In his heart Dade knew it, even if his lips 
never would admit it. 

Well, supposing Jose was beaten; suppose Jack won! 
What then? Dade blew a mouthful of smoke towards 
the camp-fire, deserted except for himself, while his 
vaqueros disported themselves with their neighbors, and 
shook his head. He had a little imagination; perhaps 
he had more than most men of his type. He could see 
a glorious row, if Jose were beaten. It would, on the 
whole, be more disastrous than if he won. 

“ And she ’s just fickle-minded enough to turn up 
her nose at Jack if he got beat,” Dade grumbled, think- 
ing of a certain senorita. “ And if he don’t, the whole 
bunch will pile onto us. Looks to me like a worse 
combination than that Vigilance row, for Jack. If he 
wins, he gets knifed ; if he don’t, he gets hell. And me 
the only one to back him up ! I ’ll wish I was about 
forty men seven foot high and armed with — ” 

“ Pardon, Senor. The senor has of course heard the 
news ? ” Jose came out of the shadows and stood with 
the firelight dancing on his face and picking out the 
glittery places on his jacket, where was the braid. “ I 
have a letter from Don Andres. Would the senor care 
to read it? No? The senor is welcome to read. I 
have no wish to keep anything hidden which concerns 



“All accident it must appear to those who watch. 


11 


Page 247. 





WHAT IS LOVE WORTH? 247 

this matter. I have brought the letter, and I want to 
say that the wishes of my friend, Don Andres, shall 
be granted. Except,” he added, coming closer, “ that 
I shall fight to the death. I wish the Senor Allen to 
understand this, though it must he held a secret be- 
tween us three. An accident it must appear to those 
who watch, because the duelo will be proclaimed a 
sport ; but to the death I will fight, and I trust that the 
Senor Allen will fight as I fight. Does the senor un- 
derstand ? ” 

“ Yes, but I can’t promise anything for Jack.” Dade 
studied Jose quietly through the smoke of his cigarette. 
“ Jack will fight to please himself, and nobody can tell 
how that will be, except that it won’t be tricky. He 
may want to kill you, and he may not. I don’t know. 
If he does, he ’ll try his damnedest, you can bank on 
that.” 

“ But you, Senor — do you not see that to fight for 
a prize merely is to belittle — ” Jose waved a hand 
eloquently. 

“ I see you ’re taking life pretty serious,” Dade re- 
torted, moving farther along the log. “ Sit down, J ose, 
and be sociable. Nothing like seeing the point of a 
joke, if there is one. Do you reckon anything ’s worth 
all the heart-burnings you ’re indulging in ? Some 
things are tough ; I ’ve waded kinda deep, myself, so 


248 


THE GRINGOS 


I know. But there ’s nothing you can’t get over, with 
time and lots of common sense, except being a sneak — 
and being dead. To me, one ’s as bad as the other, with 
maybe first choice on death. You are n’t a sneak, and 
I don’t see why you hanker to be dead. What do you 
want to fight to the death for ? ” 

Jose did not sit down beside Dade, but he came a 
little closer. “ Why do I want to fight to the death ? 
I will tell you, Senor ; I am not ashamed. Since I was 
a child I have loved that senorita whom I will not name 
to you. Only last Christmas time the senora, her 
mother, said I must wait but a year longer till she was 
a little older. They would keep their child a little 
longer, and truly her heart is the heart of a child. But 
she knew; and I think she waited also and was happy. 
But look you, Senor! Then comes a stranger and 
steals — 

“ Ah, you ask me why must I fight to the death ? 
Senor, you are a man ; perchance you have loved — 
for of a truth I see sometimes the sadness in your eyes. 
You know that I must fight thus. You know that to 
kill that blue-eyed one is all there is left to do. Me, 
I could have put him out of the way before now, for 
there are many knives ready to do me the service. Kill 
him I shall, Senor ; but it shall be in fight ; and if the 
senorita sees — good. She shall know then that at 


WHAT IS LOVE WORTH? 249 

least it is not a coward or a weakling who loves her. 
Do you ask why — ” 

Dade’s hands went out, dismissing the question. 
u ~No, I don’t ask another blamed thing. Go ahead and 
fight. Tight to kill, if that ’s the only thing that will 
satisfy you. You two aren’t the first to lock horns 
over a woman. Jack seems just as keen for it as you 
are, so I don’t reckon there’s any stopping either one 
of you. But it does seem a pity ! ” 

“ Why does it seem a pity ? ” Jose’s tone was in- 
sistent. 

“ It seems a pity,” Dade explained doggedly, u to 
see two fine fellows like you and Jack trying to kill 
each other for a girl — that isn’t worth the life of 
either one of you ! ” 

In two steps Jose confronted him, his hand lifted 
to strike. Dade, looking up at him, flicked the ashes 
from his cigarette with his forefinger, but that was the 
only move he made. Jose’s hand trembled and came 
down harmlessly by his side. 

u I was mistaken,” he said, smiling queerly. “ You 
have never loved any woman, Senor; and I think the 
sadness I have seen in your eyes is for yourself, that 
life has cheated you so. If you had known love, you 
could never have said that. Love, Senor, is worth every- 
thing a man has to give — even his life. You would 


250 


THE GRINGOS 


know that, if you had ever loved.” He waited a mo- 
ment, closed his teeth upon further words, turned 
abruptly on his heel and went away into the fog-dark- 
ened night. 

Dade, with a slight curl to his lips that did not 
look quite like a smile, stared into the fire, where the 
embers were growing charred for half their length, and 
the flames were waving wearily and shrinking back to 
the coals, and the coals themselves were filmed with 
gray. The cigarette went cold and clammy in his fin- 
gers, and in his eyes was that sadness of which Jose 
had spoken; and something else besides. 

They would fight, those two, and fight to kill. Since 
the world was first peopled, men had fought as they 
would fight — for love; for the possession of a pretty 
thing — warm, capricious, endearing, with possibly a 
heart and a soul beneath; possibly. And love — what 
was love, after all? What is love worth? He had 
loved her, too ; at least, he had felt all the emotions that 
either of them had felt for her. He was not sure that 
he did not still feel them, or would if he let himself 
go. He did not believe, however, that those emotions 
were worth more than everything else in the world; 
more than his life, or honor, or friendship. He had 
choked love, strangled it, starved it for sake of friend- 
ship; and, sitting there staring abstractedly into the 


WHAT IS LOVE WORTH? 251 

filming coals, he wondered if he had done wrong; if 
those two were right, and love was worth fighting for. 

The man who fought the hardest, he felt, would in 
this case win that for which he fought. For he felt in 
his heart that Teresita was only a pretty little animal, 
the primitive woman who would surrender to strength ; 
and that he would win in the end who simply refused 
to yield before her coquetries. 

With a quick, impatient gesture he threw his cigar- 
ette into the coals, kicked viciously a lazily smoking 
brand which sent up a little blaze and a spurt of sparks 
that died almost immediately to dull coals again. 

“ Love ’s like that,” he muttered pessimistically, 
standing up and stretching his arms mechanically. 
“ And the winner loses in the end ; maybe not always, 
but he will in this case. Poor old Jack! After all, 
she ain’t worth it. If she was — ” His chin went 
down for a minute or two, while he stared again at 
the fire. “ If she was, I ’d — But she ain’t. Love ’s 
worth — what is love worth, anyway ? ” 

He did not answer the question with any degree of 
positiveness, and he went to bed wishing that he had 
never seen the valley of Santa Clara. 


CHAPTER XIX 


ANTICIPATION 

T O give a clear picture of the preparations for that 
fiesta, one should be able to draw with strokes 
as swift as the horses that galloped up and down the 
valley at the behest of riders whose minds titillated 
with whatever phase of the fiesta appealed to them 
most ; and paint with colors as vivid as were the dreams 
of the women, from the peonas in the huts to the 
senoritas and senoras murmuring behind the shelter of 
their vines. 

One would need tell of those who went boldly into 
the mountains to find a grizzly bear and bring it alive 
and unhurt to the pen, which the peons, with feverish 
zeal and much chattering amongst themselves, were 
building close beside the smallest corral. 

A great story it would make — the tale of that hunt ! 
A man came back from it with a forearm torn sicken- 
ingly, to show how brave he had been. And the bear 
came also — a great, gaunt she-bear with two cubs 
whimpering beside her in the cage, and in her eyes a 


ANTICIPATION 


253 


sullen hunger for the giant redwoods that stood so 
straight and strong together upon the steep slopes while 
they sang crooningly the songs she knew of old, and 
a glowing hatred for her captors. 

A story that would make! A story in which Jerry 
Simpson and Tige played valiant part and bore more 
than their share of the danger, and became heroes to 
those who went with them. 

One would need to picture somehow the bubbling 
excitement of Teresita, while she planned and re- 
planned her festal garments, and tell how often she 
found it necessary to ride with Jack across the valley 
to talk the matter over with the “ pretty Senora ” 
Simpson, or to the Mission San Jose to see what Rosa 
had at last decided to wear. 

Then, there would he the solemn conferences in the 
kitchen, between Margarita and the senora herself; 
conferences that had to do with cakes and preserves 
and the like, with the ninos getting in every one’s way, 
while they listened and smacked lips over the very nam- 
ing of so many good things to eat. 

One would need see the adobe corral that was to he 
transformed into an amphitheater where were hammer- 
ing and clatter from sunrise till dark, without even a 
pause for midday siesta amongst those lazy peons who 
would sleep over their cigarettes, though the padres 


254 THE GRINGOS 

stood over them predicting the end of the world the 
next moment. 

Well in the foreground of the picture would be Jack, 
to be sure; Jack riding far afield upon Surry, whom 
he had found the best horse for his purpose upon the 
whole ranch; lassoing cattle to get his hand in, prac- 
tising certain little twists of his own invention, and 
teaching Surry to know without fail just what certain 
signals meant, and obey instantly and implicitly when 
they were given. 

Sometimes, when the senorita was not in a perverse 
mood, she would ride with him and applaud his dex- 
terity; at other times she would boast of Jose’s mar- 
velous skill, and pity Jack in advance for the defeat 
which she pretended was inevitable. Whether she 
pitied or praised, she seemed always sincere for the 
moment, so that Jack gave up any lingering hope of 
knowing how she really felt about it, and contented 
himself with the determination to deflect all the pity 
towards Jose when the time came, and keep the praise 
for himself. 

There would be other contests; and scarce a day 
passed wherein no horse loped heavily up the slope 
and stopped with heaving flanks in the patio, while its 
rider dismounted and bowed low before Don Andres, 
giving news of some vaquero who wished his name to 


ANTICIPATION 255 

be listed as a contestant in the riding, or the lassoing 
and tying of steers, or in the bull-fight, perchance. 

But there was no third name offered in the riata 
contest for which Solano was announced as a prize. 
All up and down the valley; at the ranches, on the 
trails when men met and stopped to talk awhile, and 
around the camp-fires of the rodeo they talked of it; 
and many bets would have been laid upon the outcome, 
had not all men been of one mind. When Jose was 
not present, or Dade, or the more outspoken of the 
Picardo vaqueros, always they spoke of it as the duelo 
riata, and took it for granted that it would be fought 
to the death. Thus are secrets kept from men who 
can read from their own natures the truth! The men 
of Santa Clara lowered lids and smiled whenever they 
spoke of it as a contest, for as a duel had the word 
first gone forth from the exultant lips of Manuel; as a 
duel would it still remain among themselves, spite of 
the fiesta and the prize that was offered, and the re- 
iteration that it was but sport. 

One should picture the whole valley for the back- 
ground; a sunken paradise of greenery, splotched with 
color, made alive with bird-songs and racing cloud- 
shadows on the grass ; with the wooded slopes of the 
Santa Cruz mountains closing in upon the west and 
sheltering it from the sweeping winds from off the 


256 


THE GRINGOS 


ocean, and the grassy hills rising high and rugged on 
the east, giving rich pasturage to the cattle and all the 
wild things that fed there. 

When it was complete — that picture — then might 
one w T eep to be there in the midst of it all! For there 
would be much laughter, and the love-making would 
make young pulses beat fast to think upon. There 
would be dancing, and the tinkle of guitars and man- 
dolins, and a harp or two to beat a harmonious surf- 
song beneath the waves of melody. There would be 
feasting, with whole beeves roasted over pits which the 
peons were already digging in their dreams ; with casks 
of wine from the don’s own vineyard to wash down the 
juicy morsels. There would be all that throughout one 
long, moonlit night, with the day of sports to think 
back upon. And through the night they would talk 
of the duelo riata between two men who loved one little 
senorita who laughed much and cared little, said cer- 
tain wise senoras, and nodded their heads while they 
said it. 

What if some hearts were bitter over the prospect? 
From Santa Barbara, even, were they coming to the 
fiesta ! (Gustavo had the news from a peon who came 
straight through from Paso Robles on an errand for 
his master.) 

What if Dade, thinking and thinking until his brain 


ANTICIPATION 


257 


was dizzy, lay long hours awake in his blankets and 
stared up at the star-sprinkle in the purple night-sky, 
trying to find a path that would lead to peace? The 
senorita lay awake also, thinking smilingly that she had 
nearly finished the embroidery upon the bodice she 
meant to wear, and that the pretty senora had promised 
to do her black hair in a new and wonderful way that 
should smart with envy the eyes of all the other 
senoritas when they saw; and that the senora her 
mother had reluctantly promised that she should wear 
the gold chain with the rubies glowing along every 
little thumb-length of it ; thinking also, perhaps, of how 
she had made the Senor Jack’s eyes grow dark and then 
flash anger-lights, when she taunted him again about 
going to the wise old woman at the Mission San Jose 
for a charm to make the riata fly true ! 

What if the old don, seeing also that trouble hung 
like a vulture over the feast, paced uneasily up and 
down the vine-hidden veranda, while he meditated upon 
the follies of youth? The young steers that had been 
driven in for the roasting-pits were trampling uneasily 
about the little corral where they had been put to fat- 
ten; and Gustavo walked with his head thrown back 
upon his shoulders that he might read that open page 
which was the sky, and to any anxious ones who asked, 
he had but one answer and that a comforting one: 


258 


THE GRINGOS 


“ The day will be a day of sunshine, with linnets sing- 
ing in the trees and the smallest breeze to cool the 
cheek.” The anxious ones, hearing so good an augury, 
would pass on, their thoughts upon the day-of-days and 
on their lips a little smile. 


CHAPTER XX 


LOST ! TWO HASTY TEMPERS 

“/''"XHE more throw, and then no more until the 
contest,” Jack announced placatingly, when 
he spied a lone hull standing just before a thicket of 
chaparral and staring at them with stupid resentment 
that his siesta had been disturbed. “ A kiss for luck, 
little one ! ” 

Riata coiled in his hand, Jack rode closer and 
leaned to the girl, his eyes and his voice caressing, 
his lips quivering for the kiss he craved. It had come 
to kisses long before then, and to half promises, when 
her mood was tender, that she would marry her blue- 
eyed one — sometime. 

Just now her mood was not tender. Jack was not 
to blame, nor was the pretty Senora Simpson, although 
Mrs. Jerry was quite innocently and unconsciously the 
cause. Mrs. Jerry had a headache, that day, and a fit 
of the blues ; and from the first moment when Teresita 
had entered the cabin she had felt a lack of warmth 
in the pretty senora’s manner that had piqued her, who 


260 


THE GRINGOS 


Lad lived upon adoration all her life. Mrs. Jerry had 
even shown a disposition to shirk keeping her promise 
anent the new way of doing Teresita’s hair. 

She said that she did n’t think she ’d go to the fiesta, 
after all — which was like calmly telling a priest that 
one does not, after all, feel as if heaven is worth striv- 
ing for. 

Teresita failed to see how the wistfulness was quite 
submerging the twinkle in Mrs. Jerry’s eyes, and if 
she had seen, she would never have guessed what put it 
there; nor would she have understood why Mrs. Jerry 
might shrink from attending that magnificent festival, 
perhaps the only gringo woman in all the crowd, and 
a pitifully shabby gringo woman at that. To her mind, 
Mrs. Jerry was beautiful and perfect, even in her 
shapeless brown dress that was always clean. Teresita' 
herself would never have worn that dress at all, yet it 
did not occur to her that Mrs. Jerry might have some 
very feminine quality of pride crowded down into some 
corner of her sweet nature. So Teresita was mightily 
offended at what she considered a slight from the only 
gringo woman she had ever known; and she was also 
bitterly disappointed over the abandonment of the new 
coiffure. 

“ Why don’t you wear it just the way it is, honey ? ” 
Mrs. J erry had suggested — and very sensibly, too. 64 1 


LOST! TWO TEMPERS 261 

would n’t go and twist it all up and stick pins through 
it, if I was you. It ’s prettier just that way.” 

Teresita had understood enough of that, thanks to 
the teachings of her blue-eyed one, to know that the 
pretty senora did not mean to keep her promise. She 
had gone almost immediately to the cabin door to tell 
Jack that she was ready to go home. And Jack, deep 
in one of those interminable conversations with Jerry 
himself, over on the pile of logs that would one day be 
a stable if Jerry’s hopes reached fruition, had merely 
waved his hand carelessly when he saw her, and had 
given all his attention to Jerry again. 

Of course, Teresita could not know that they were 
discussing a brief but rancorous encounter which Jerry 
had had with Manuel that morning, when the two hap- 
pened to meet farther down the valley while Manuel 
was riding his share of the rodeo circle. Two of Jose’s 
men had been with Manuel, and their attitude had been 
“purty derned upstropolus,” according to Jerry. 
(Jack decided after a puzzled minute that the strange 
word which J erry spoke with such relish must be 
Simpsonese for obstreperous.) They had, in fact, at- 
tempted to drive off three of Jerry’s oxen to the rodeo 
ground, and only the characteristic “ firmness ” of Jerry 
had prevented them from doing it. Jemima, he said, 
had helped some when pointed at Manuel’s scowling 


262 


THE GRINGOS 


face; but Jerry opined that he would hereafter take 
the twins along too when he rode out anywhere, and 
that he guessed he ’d cut another loophole or two in his 
cabin walls. 

All of these various influences had created an at- 
mosphere which Teresita felt and resented without at- 
tempting to understand. The big senor had not given 
her the smiles and the funny attempts at conversation 
which she had come to accept as a matter of course. 
The pretty senora had not been as enthusiastic as she 
should have been, when Teresita showed her the ruby 
chain which, like a child, she had brought over for the 
pretty senora to admire. 

Therefore, Jack’s lips found reason to tighten and 
cease their eager quivering for a kiss. For Teresita 
twitched her shoulders pettishly and her reins dexter- 
ously, and so removed herself some distance from the 
kissing zone. 

“ No ? Well, I ’ll have to depend on my good riata, 
then. I ’ll take that gentleman at twenty-five feet, and 
if I can get him to run right, I ’ll heel him. Don’t 
ride any closer, Teresita.” 

He had not called her dulce corazon (sweetheart) as 
she had expected him to call her; he had not even in- 
sisted upon the kiss, but had given up altogether too 
tamely ; and for that she rode closer to the bull in spite. 


LOST! TWO TEMPERS 263 


She even had some notion of getting in Jack’s way, and 
of making him miss if she could. She was seventeen, 
you see, and she was terribly spoiled. 

Jack had never made any attempt to study the 
psychological twists of a woman’s nature. He con- 
tented himself with loving, and with being straightfor- 
ward and selfish and a bit arrogant in his love, after 
the manner of the normal man. It would never occur 
to him that Teresita was piqued because he had not 
called her sweetheart, and he straightway sinned more 
grievously still. 

“ Go back, the other way ! He ’s liable to start in 
your direction,” he cried, intent upon her safety and 
his own whim to rope the beast. 

Teresita deliberately kicked her horse and loped for- 
ward. 

It would not be nice to say that bulls are like some 
humans, but it is a fact that they are extremely illog- 
ical animals, full of impulses and whims that have ab- 
solutely no relation to cause or effect. This bull had 
not moved except to roll his eyes from one to the other 
of the riders. If he meditated war he should, by all 
the bovine traditions of warfare, have bellowed a warn- 
ing and sent up a whiff or two of dirt over his back, 
as one has a right to expect a pessimistic bull to do. 
Instead of which he flung down his head and made an 


264 


THE GRINGOS 


unexpected rush at Teresita — and J ack had left his 
pistols at home. 

Jack’s riata was coiled in his hand and his head was 
turned towards the girl, his brain busy with his thoughts 
of her and her wilfulness. From the tail of his eye he 
caught the first lunge of the bull, and that automatic 
mental adjustment to unexpected situations, which we 
call presence of mind, sent a knee-signal to Surry which 
that intelligent animal obeyed implicitly. 

Surry rushed straight at the bull, but the triangle 
was a short one, and there was much to do in that 
quarter of a minute. Teresita was stubborn and would 
not turn and run ; but she happened to be riding Tejon, 
who knew something about bulls and was capable of 
acting upon his knowledge. He whirled with hind feet 
for a pivot and ducked away from the horns coming 
at him, and it was not one second too soon. The bull 
swept by, so close that a slaver of foam was flung 
against Teresita’s skirt as he passed. 

He whirled to come back at the girl — and that time 
he seemed sure to give that vicious, ripping jab he had 
so narrowly missed giving before; even the girl saw 
that he would, and turned a little pale, and Tejon’s 
eyes glazed with terror. 

But Jack had gained the second he needed — the 
second that divided adventure from tragedy. The riata 


LOST! TWO TEMPERS 265 


loop shot from his upflung hand and sped whimperingly 
on its errand, even as Tejon tried to swing away, tripped, 
and tumbled to his knees. The riata caught the lifted 
forefeet of the bull just as he stiffened his neck for the 
lunge. Surry braced himself automatically when Jack 
drew tight the loop, and the bull went down with a thud 
and lay with his forefeet held high in air, so close to 
his quarry that the tip of one horn struck Tejon upon 
the knee and flicked a raw, red spot there. 

Then Jack, in the revulsion from deadly fear to re- 
lief, was possessed by one of those gusts of nervous 
rage that seized him sometimes ; such a brief fit of rage 
as made him kill lustfully three men in the space of 
three heart-beats, almost, and feel regret because he 
could not keep on killing. 

He did not run to Teresita and comfort her for her 
fright, as a lover ought to have done. Instead he gave 
her one look as he went by, and that a look of indig- 
nation for her foolishness. He ran to the bull, drew 
his knife from his sash and tried to stab it in the 
brain; but his hand shook so that he missed and only 
gave it a glancing gash that let much blood flow. He 
swore and struck again, snapping the dagger blade 
short off against the horns. Whereupon he threw the 
dagger violently from him and gave an angry kick at 
the animal, as if he would kill it that way. 


266 


THE GRINGOS 


“ Savage ! ” cried Teresita, hysterically shrill 
“ Brute ! Leave the poor thing alone ! It has done 
nothing, that you should beat it while it cannot fight 
back.” 

Jack, lifting his spurred foot for another kick, set 
it down and turned to her dazedly. 

In her way as shaken by her narrow escape as he 
was himself, she straightway called him brute and 
savage again, and sentimentally pitied the bull because 
he lay upon his back with his front feet in the air, and 
because the gash on his head was bleeding. 

Jack’s rage passed as quickly as it came; but it left 
him stubborn under her recriminations. 

“ You are very soft-hearted, all of a sudden, seno- 
rita,” he said, with a fairly well-defined sneer, when he 
could bear no more. “ You won’t enjoy the bull- 
fighting, then, to-morrow — for all you have been look- 
ing forward to it so anxiously, and have robbed your- 
self of ribbons to decorate the darts. It ’s not half so 
brutal to kill a bull that tries to kill you, as it is to fill 
it with flag-trimmed arrows for fun, and only put it 
out of its misery when you ’re tired of seeing it suffer ! 
This bull came near killing you ! That ’s why I ’m 
going to kill it.” 

“ You are not ! Santa Maria, what a savage beast 
you are ! Let him go instantly ! Let him go, I say ! ” 


LOST! TWO TEMPERS 267 

If she had been on the ground, she would have stamped 
her foot. As it was, she shook an adorably tiny fist at 
Jack, and blinked her long lashes upon the tears of 
real, sincere anger that stood in her black eyes, and 
gritted her teeth at him ; for the senorita had a temper 
quite as hot as Jack’s, when it was roused, and all her 
life she had been given her own way in everything. 

“ Let him go this moment, or I shall never speak to 
you again ! ” she threatened rashly. 

For answer, Jack walked deliberately past her to 
where Surry stood with his feet braced still against the 
pull of the riata and his neck arched knowingly, while 
he rolled the little wheel in the bit with his tongue. 
Jack made himself a cigarette, lay down in the shade 
of his horse, and smoked just as calmly as though his 
heart was not thumping so that he could hear it quite 
plainly. She had gone the wrong way about making 
him yield; threats had always acted like a goad upon 
Jack’s anger, just as they do upon most of us. 

Teresita looked at him in silence for a minute. And 
Jack, his head upon his arm in a position that would 
give him a fair view of her from the brim of his som- 
brero while he seemed to be taking no notice of her, 
wondered how soon she would change her mood to coax- 
ing, and so melt that lump of obstinacy in his throat 
that would not let him so much as answer her vixenish 


268 


THE GRINGOS 


upbraidings. A very little coaxing would have freed 
the bull then, and he would have kissed the red mouth 
that had reviled him, and would have called her “ dulce 
corazon,” as she loved to have him do. Such a very 
little coaxing would have been enough ! 

“ Dios ! How I hate a gringo ! ” she cried passion- 
ately, just when Jack believed she was going to cry 
“ Senor Jack ? ” in that pretty, cooing tone she had 
that could make the words as tender as a kiss. “ Jose 
is right. Gringos are savages and worse than savages. 
Stay and torture your bull, then! I hate you! Never 
have I known hate, till now! I shall be glad when 
Jose drags you from your horse to-morrow. I shall 
laugh and clap my hands, and cry, ‘ Bravo, bravo, 
querido mio ! ’ [my beloved] when you are flung into 
the dirt where you belong. And when he kills you, I 
shall kiss him for his reward, before all the peo- 
ple, and I shall laugh when they fling you to the 
coyotes ! ” Yes, she said that; for she had a temper — 
had the Senorita Teresita — and she had a tongue that 
could speak words that burned like vitriol. 

She said more than has been quoted; epithets she 
hurled upon the recumbent form that seemed a man 
asleep save for the little drift of smoke from his cigar- 
ette; epithets which she had heard the vaqueros use at 
the corrals upon certain occasions when they did not 


LOST! TWO TEMPERS 269 


know that she was near; epithets of which she did not 
know the meaning at all. 

“ Bravo ! ” applauded some one, and she turned to- 
see that Manuel and Carlos, Jose’s head vaquero, had 
ridden up to the group very quietly, and had been lis- 
tening for no one knew how long. 

The senorita was so angry that she was not in the 
least abashed by the eavesdropping. She smiled wick- 
edly, drew off a glove and tossed it to Manuel, who 
caught it dexterously without waiting to see why she 
wanted him to have it. 

“ Take that to Jose, for a token,” she cried recklessly. 
“ Tell him I have put a wish upon it ; and if he wears 
it next his heart in the duelo to-morrow he will win 
without fail. Tell Jose I shall ask the Blessed Virgin 
to-night to let no accident befall him, and that I shall 
save the first two dances for him and none other ! ” 

She was not a finished actress, because of her youth. 
She betrayed by a glance his way that she spoke for 
Jack’s benefit. And Jack, in the hardening of his 
stubborn anger, blew a mouthful of smoke upward into 
a ring which the breeze broke almost immediately, and 
laughed aloud. 

Teresita heard, bit her lips cruelly at failing to bring 
that stubborn gringo to his feet — and to hers ! — and 
wheeled Tejon close to Manuel and Carlos. She rode 


270 


THE GRINGOS 


away between the two towards home, and she did not 
once look behind her until she had gone so far she 
feared she could not see what her blue-eyed one was 
doing. Then she turned, and her teeth went together 
with a click. For Jack was lying just as she had left 
him, with his head upon his arm as if he might be 
asleep. 


CHAPTER XXI 


FIESTA DAY 

D ADE, rolling over in bed and at the same mo- 
ment opening his eyes reluctantly upon the new 
day, that he hated, beheld Jack half-dressed and shav- 
ing his left jaw, and looking as if he were committing 
murder upon an enemy. Dade watched him idly; he 
could afford the luxury of idleness that morning; for 
rodeo was over, and he was lying between linen sheets 
on a real bed, under a roof other than the branches of 
a tree; and if his mind had rested as easily as his 
body, he would have been almost happy. 

But this was the day of the fiesta; and with the re- 
membrance of that vital fact came a realization that on 
this day the Picardo ranch would be the Mecca toward 
which all California was making pilgrimage; and, he 
feared, the battle-ground of the warring interests and 
prejudices of the pilgrims themselves. 

Dade listened to the voices shouting orders and greet- 
ings without as the vaqueros hurried here and there 
in excited preparations for the event. He judged that 


272 


THE GRINGOS 


not another man in the valley was in bed at that mo- 
ment, unless sickness held him there ; and for that very 
reason he pulled a blanket snugger about his ears and 
tried to make himself believe that he was enjoying to 
the full his laziness. He had earned it ; and last night 
had been the first one of deep, unbroken sleep that he 
had had since that moonlit night when Manuel and 
Valencia rode in haste to meet this surly-browed fellow 
before him. 

Jack did not wipe off the scowl with the lather, and 
Dade began to observe him more critically; which he 
had not before had an opportunity to do, for the reason 
that Jack had not returned to the ranch the night be- 
fore until Dade was in bed and asleep. 

“ Say, you don’t want to let the fellows outside see 
you looking like that,” he remarked, when Jack had 
yanked a horn comb through his red-brown mop of hair 
as if he were hoeing corn. 

“Why?” Jack turned on him truculently. 

“ Well, you look a whole lot like a man that expects 
a licking. And I don’t see any excuse for that ; you ’re 
sure to win, old man. I ’d bet my last shirt on that.” 
Which was Dade’s method of wiping off the scowl. 

“ Say, Dade,” J ack began irrelevantly, “ I ’m going 
to use Surry. You don’t mind, do you ? He ’s the best 
horse I ever threw a rope off from, without any ex- 


FIESTA DAY 


273 


ceptions. I ’ve been training him up a little, and I 
tell you what, Surry ’s going to have a lot to do with 
that duel.” 

Dade sat up in bed as if he had been pulled up. 
“ Jack, are you going to make it a sure-enough duel? ” 
he asked anxiously. 

“ Why ? ” Jack’s eyes hardened perceptibly. “ That’s 
what Jose wants.” 

“ Do you want it ? ” Dade scowled absent-mindedly 
at the wall, felt the prick of an unpleasant thought, and 
glanced sharply at Jack. 

“ Say, I feel sorry for Jose,” he began straightfor- 
wardly. “ As a man, I ’d like him fine, if he ’d let me. 
And, Jack, you’ve got everything coming your way, and 
— well, seems like you might go easy on this fight, no 
matter what Jose wants. He ’s crazy jealous, of 
course — but you want to recollect that he has plenty 
of cause. You ’ve stepped in between him and a girl 
he ’s known all his life. They were practically engaged, 
before — ” 

“ I don’t know as Jose’s love affairs interest me,” put 
in Jack harshly. “ Do you care if I use Surry? I 
kinda took it for granted it would be all right, so I 
went ahead and trained him so I can bank on him in 
a pinch.” 

“ Of course you can use him.” That Dade’s hesi- 


274 THE GRINGOS 

tation did not cover more than a few seconds was proof 
of his absolute loyalty to Jack. Not another man living 
could have used Surry in a struggle such as that would 
be; a struggle where the danger was not all for the 
rider, but must be shared equally by the horse. Indeed, 
Dade himself would not have ridden him in such a con- 
test, because his anxiety lest Surry should be hurt would 
have crippled his own dexterity. But Jack wanted 
to ride Surry, and Dade’s lips smiled consent to the 
sacrifice. 

“ All right, then. That horse is sure a wonder, Dade. 
Sensible ? You never saw anything like it ! I never 
saw a horse so sensitive to — well, I suppose it ’s mus- 
cular reactions that I ’m unconscious of. I ’ve tried 
him out without a bridle on him; and, Dade, I can 
sit perfectly still in the saddle, and he ’ll turn wherever 
I make up my mind to go! Fact. You try it your- 
self, next time you ride him. So I ’ve cultivated that 
faculty of his, this last month. 

“ And besides, I ’ve got him trained to dodge a rope 
every time. Had Diego go out with me and try to lasso 
me, you know. I had one devil of a time with the 
Injun, too, to make him disrespectful enough to throw 
a rope at me. But Surry took to it like a she-bear to 
honey, and he ’s got so he can gauge distances to a hair, 
now, and dodge it every pass. I ’m going to ride him 


FIESTA DAY 275 

to-day with a hackamore; and yon watch him perform, 
old man! I can turn him on a tin plate, just with 
pressing my knees. That horse will — ” 

“ Say, you ’re stealing my thunder,” drawled Dade, 
grinning. “ That ’s my privilege, to sing Surry’s 
praises. Have n’t I told you, right along, that he ’s 
a wonder ? ” 

“ Well, you told the truth for once in your life, any- 
way. Get up, you lazy devil, and come out and take a 
look at him. I ’m going to have Diego give him a 
hath, soon as the sun gets hot enough. I ’ve got a color 
scheme that will make these natives hug their eyes out ! 
And Surry ’s got to be considerably whiter than 
snow — ” 

“ Huh ! ” Dade was watching him closely while he 
listened. For all Jack’s exuberance of speech, there 
was the hard look in his eyes still; and there was a 
line between his eyebrows which Dade had never no- 
ticed there before, except as a temporary symptom of 
anger. He had, Dade remembered, failed to make any 
statement of his intentions toward Jose ; which was not 
like Jack, who was prone to speak impulsively and 
bluntly his mind. Also, it occurred to Dade that he 
had not once mentioned Teresita, although before the 
rodeo his talk had been colored with references to the 
girl. 


276 


THE GRINGOS 


“ Oh, how ’s the senorita, by the way ? ” Dade asked 
deliberately. 

“ All right,” returned Jack promptly, with a rising 
inflection. “ Are you going to get up, or shall I haul 
you out by the heels ? ” 

Dade, observing an evasion of that subject also, did 
some hard thinking while he obediently pulled on his 
clothes. But he said not a word more about the duel, 
or Jose’s love-tragedy, or Teresita. 

Since the first flush of dawn the dismal squeal of 
wooden-wheeled ox-carts had hushed the bird songs all 
up and down El Camino Beal, and the popping of the 
drivers’ lashes, which punctuated their objurgations to 
the shambling oxen, told eloquently of haste. Within 
canopies formed of gay, patchwork quilts and gayer 
serapes, heavy- jowled, swarthy senoras lurched re- 
signedly with the jolting of the carts, and between- 
whiles counseled restive senoritas upon the subject of 
deportment or gossiped idly of those whom they ex- 
pected to meet at the fiesta. 

The Picardo hacienda was fairly wiped clean of its 
comfortable home-atmosphere, so immaculate was it and 
so plainly held ready for ceremonious festivities. The 
senora herself went about with a linen dust-cloth in 
her hand, and scolded because the smoke from the fires 
which the peons had tended all night in the barbecue 


FIESTA DAY 


277 


pits was borne straight toward the house by the tricksy 
west wind, and left cinders and grime upon windows 
closed against it. The patio was swept clean of dust 
and footprints, and the peons scarce dared to cross it 
in their scurrying errands hither and thither. 

In the orchard many caballeros fresh from the rodeo 
were camped, their waiting-time spent chiefly in talk- 
ing of the thing they meant to do or hoped to see, while 
they polished spur-shanks and bridle trimmings. 

Horses were being groomed painstakingly at the cor- 
rals, and there was always a group around the bear-pen 
where the two cubs whimpered, and the gaunt mother 
rolled wicked, little, bloodshot eyes at those who watched 
and dropped pebbles upon her outraged nose and like 
cowards remained always beyond her reach. 

In the small corral near by, the bulls bellowed 
hoarsely at the scent of their grizzly neighbor and 
tossed dirt menacingly over their backs; while above 
them the rude tiers of seats waited emptily for the yell- 
ing humans who would crowd them later. Beyond, 
under a great, wide-spreading live oak near the roast- 
ing pits, three fat young steers swung by their heels 
from a horizontal limb, ready for the huge gridirons 
that stood leaning against the trunk behind them. In- 
deed, the heads of those same steers were even then 
roasting in their hide in the smaller pit of their own, 


278 THE GRINGOS 

where the ashes were still warm, though the fire had 
been drawn over-night. 

The sun was not more than two hours high when 
Don Andres himself appeared in his gala dress upon the 
veranda, to greet in flowery Spanish the first arrivals 
among his guests. The senora, he explained courteously, 
was still occupied, and the senorita, he averred fondly, 
was sleeping still, because there would be no further 
opportunity to sleep for many hours ; hut his house and 
all that he had was half theirs, and they would honor 
him most by entering into their possessions. 

Whereupon the senoras and the senoritas settled 
themselves in comfortable chairs and waited, and in- 
spected the house of this lord of the valley, whose luxury 
was something to envy. Some of those senoras walked 
upon bare, earthen floors when they were at home, and 
their black eyes rested hungrily upon the polished, dark 
wood beneath their feet, and upon the rugs that had 
come from Spain along with the paintings upon the 
walls. They looked, and craned, and murmured com- 
ments until the senora appeared, a little breathless and 
warm from her last conference with Margarita in the 
kitchen, and turned their tongues upon the festival. 

Dade was just finishing the rite of shaving, and 
thinking the while that he would give all that he pos- 
sessed, including Surry, if he could whisk Jack and 


FIESTA DAY 


279 

himself to the cool, pine slope in the Sierras where was 
their mine. Every day of waiting and gossiping over 
the duel had hut fostered the feeling of antagonism 
among the men of the valley, and whatever might he 
the outcome of that encounter, Dade could see no hope 
of avoiding an open clash between the partisans of the 
two combatants. Valencia and Pancho and two or three 
others of the Picardo vaqueros, who hated Manuel — 
and therefore had no love for Jose — would be more 
than likely to side with him and Jack, though he hon- 
estly wished that they would not; for the more friends 
they had when the test was made, the greater would he 
the disturbance, especially since there would he wine 
for all; and wine never yet served to cool a temper or 
lull excitement. 

Without in the least realizing it, Dade’s face while 
he shaved wore a scowl quite as pronounced as the one 
that had called his attention to Jack’s mood. And, 
more significant, he had no sooner finished than he 
looked into his little box of pistol caps to see how many 
he had left, and inspected the pistol as well; for the 
law of self-preservation strikes deeper than most emo- 
tions, and his life had mostly been lived where men 
must frequently fight for the right to live; and in such 
surroundings the fighting instinct wakes at the first 
hint of antagonism. 


280 


THE GRINGOS 


“ My riata’s gone ! ” announced J ack breathlessly, 
bursting into the room at that moment as if he expected 
to find the thief there. “ I left it on my saddle last 
night, and now — ” 

“ And that was a fool thing to do, I must say ! ” 
commented Dade, startled into harshness. He slid the 
pistol into its holster and buckled the belt around his 
muscular body with fingers that moved briskly. “ Well, 
my riata ’s no slouch — you can use it. You Ve used 
it before.” 

“ I don’t want yours. I ’ve got used to my own. 
I know to an inch just where it will land — oh, damn 
the luck — It was some of those fellows camped by 
the orchard, and when I find out which — ” 

“ Keep your head on, anyway,” advised Dade more 
equably. “ Your nerves must be pretty well frazzled. 
If you let a little thing like this upset you, how do you 
expect — ” 

“ It ain’t a little thing ! ” gritted J ack, loading his 
pistols hurriedly. “ That six-strand riata has got a 
different feel, a different weight — oh, you know it ’s 
going to make all the difference in the world when I 
get out there with Jose. Whoever took it knew what 
it meant, all right ! Some one — ” 

“ Where ’s Surry ? ” A sudden fear sent Dade hur- 
rying to the door. “ By the Lord Harry, if they ’ve 


FIESTA DAY 281 

hurt Surry — ” He jerked the door open and went 
out, Jack hard upon his heels. 

“I didn’t think of that,” Jack confessed on the 
way to the stable, and got a look of intense disgust from 
Dade, which he mitigated somewhat by his next re- 
mark. “ Diego was to sleep in the stall last night.” 

“ Oh.” Dade slackened his pace a bit. “ Why 
did n’t you say so ? ” 

“ I think,” retorted J ack, grinning a little, “ some- 
body else’s nerves are kinda frazzled, too. I don’t want 
you to begin worrying over my affairs, Dade. I ’m 
not,” he asserted with unconvincing emphasis. “ But 
all the same, I ’d like to get my fingers on the fellow 
that took my riata ! ” 

Since he formulated that wish after he reached the 
doorway of the roomy box-stall where Surry was housed, 
he faced a badly scared peon as the door swung open. 

“ Senor — I — pardon, Senor ! But I feared that 
harm might come to the riata in the night. There are 
many guests, Senor, who speak ill of gringos, and I 
heard a whisper — ” 

Jack, gripping Diego by the shoulders, halted his 
nervous explanations. u What about the riata ? ” he 
cried. “ Do you know where it is ? ” 

“ Si, Senor. Me, I took it from the senor’s saddle, 
for I feared harm would be done if it were left there 


282 


THE GRINGOS 


to tempt those who would laugh to see the senor dragged 
to the death to-day. Senor, that is J ose’s purpose ; from 
a San Vincente vaquero I heard — and he had it from 
the lips of Manuel. Jose will lasso the senor, and the 
horse will run away with Jose, and the senor will he 
killed. Ah, Senor ! — Jose’s skill is great ; and Manuel 
swears that now he will truly fight like a demon, be- 
cause the prayers of the senorita go with Jose. Her 
glove she sent him for a token — Manuel swears that 
it is so, and a message that he is to kill thee, Senor ! ” 

“ But my riata ? ” To Diego’s amazement, his blue- 
eyed god seemed not in the least disturbed, either by 
plot or gossip. 

“ Ah, the riata ! Last night I greased it well, Senor, 
so that to-day it would be soft. And this morning at 
daybreak I stretched it here in the stall and rubbed it 
until it shone. Now it is here, Senor, where no knife- 
point can steal into it and cunningly cut the strands 
that are hidden, so that the senor would not observe and 
would place faith upon it and be betrayed.” Diego 
lifted his loose, linen shirt and disclosed the riata coiled 
about his middle. 

The eyes of his god, when they rested upon the brown 
body wrapped round and round with the rawhide on 
which his life would later hang, were softer than they 
had been since he had craved the kiss that had been 


FIESTA DAY 


283 


denied him, many hours before. It was only the blind 
worship and the loyalty of a peon whose feet were bare, 
whose hands were calloused with labor, whose face was 
seamed with the harshness of his serfdom. Only a 
peon’s loyalty ; but something hard and bitter and reck- 
less, something that might have proved a more serious 
handicap than a strange riata, dropped away from 
Jack’s mood and left him very nearly his normal self. 
It was as if the warmth of the rawhide struck through 
the chill which Teresita’s unreasoning spite had brought 
to the heart of him, and left there a little glow. 

“ Gracias, Diego,” he said, and smiled in the way 
that made one love him. “ Let it stay until I have 
need of it. It will surely fly true, to-day, since it has 
been warmed thus by thy friendship.” 

From an impulse of careless kindness he said it, even 
though he had been touched by the peon’s anxiety for 
his welfare. But Diego’s heart was near to bursting 
with gratitude and pride; those last two words — he 
would not have exchanged the memory of them for the 
gold medal itself. That his blue-eyed god should ad- 
dress him, a mere peon, as “ thy,” the endearing, inti- 
mate pronoun kept for one’s friends ! The tears stood 
in Diego’s black eyes when he heard; and Diego was 
no weakling, but a straight-backed stoic of an Indian, 
who stood almost as tall as the Senor Jack himself and 


284 


THE GRINGOS 


■who could throw a full-grown steer to the ground by 
twisting its head. He bowed low and turned to fumble 
the sweet, dried grasses in Surry’s manger ; and beneath 
his coarse shirt the feel of the rawhide was sweeter 
than the embrace of a loved woman. 

“ You want to take mighty good care of this little 
nag of mine,” Dade observed irrelevantly, his fingers 
combing wistfully the crinkly mane. “ There ’ll never 
be another like him in this world. And if there was, 
it would n’t be him.” 

“ I reckon it ’s asking a good deal of you, to think 
of using him at all.” For the first time Jack became 
conscious of his selfishness. “ I won’t, Dade, if you ’d 
rather I did n’t.” 

“Don’t be a blamed idiot. You know I want you 
to go ahead and use him ; only — I ’d hate to see him 
hurt.” 

To Dade the words seemed to be wrenched from the 
very fibers of his friendship. He loved that horse 
more than he had ever believed he could love an animal ; 
and he was mentally sacrificing him to Jack’s need. 

Jack went up and rubbed Surry’s nose playfully; 
and it cost Dade a jealous twinge to see how the horse 
responded to the touch. 

“ He won’t get hurt. I ’ve taught him how to take 
care of himself ; have n’t I, Diego ? ” And he put the 


FIESTA DAY 285 

statement into Spanish, so that the peon could under- 
stand. 

“ Si, he will never let the riata touch him, Sehor. 
Truly, it is well that he will come at the call, for 
otherwise he would never again he caught ! ” Diego 
grinned, checked himself on the verge of venturing an- 
other comment, and tilted his head sidewise instead, his 
ears perked toward the medley of fiesta sounds outside. 

“ Listen, Senors ! That is not the squeal of carts 
alone, which I hear. It is the carriage that has wheels 
made of little sticks, that chatters much when it moves. 
Americanos are coming, Senors.” 

“ Americanos ! ” Dade glanced quickly at Jack, 
mutely questioning. “ I wonder if — ” He gave 
Surry a hasty, farewell slap on the shoulder and went 
out into the sunshine and the clamor of voices and 
laughter, with the creaking of carts threaded through 
it all. The faint, unmistakable rattle of a wagort 
driven rapidly, came towards them. While they stood 
listening, came also a confused jumble of voices emit- 
ting sounds which the two guessed were intended for 
a song. A little later, above the high-pitched rattle of 
the wagon wheels, they heard the raucous, long-drawn 
“ Yank-ee doo-oo-dle da-a-andy ! ” which confirmed their 
suspicions and identified the comers as gringos beyond 
a doubt. 


286 THE GRINGOS 

“ Must be a crowd from San Francisco,” said Jack 
needlessly. “ I wrote and told Bill about the fiesta, 
when I sent up after some clothes. I told him to come 
down and take it in — and I guess he ’s coming.” 

Bill was; and he was coming largely, emphatically, 
and vaingloriously. He had a wagon well loaded with 
his more intimate friends, including Jim. He had a 
following of half his Committee of Vigilance and all 
the men of like caliber who could find a horse or a mule 
to straddle. Even the Roman-nosed buckskin of sinister 
history was in the van of the procession that came 
charging up the slope with all the speed it could muster 
after the journey from the town on the tip of the 
peninsula. 

In the wagon were a drum, two fifes, a cornet, and 
much confusion of voices. Bill, enthroned upon the 
front seat beside the driver of the four-horse team, 
waved both arms exuberantly and started the song all 
over again, so that they had to sing very fast indeed 
in order to finish by the time they swung up to the 
patio and stopped. 

Bill scrambled awkwardly down over the wheel and 
gripped the hands of those two whose faces welcomed 
him without words. “ Well, we got here,” he an- 
nounced, including the whole cavalcade with one sweep- 
ing gesture. “ Started before daylight, too, so we 


FIESTA DAY 287 

would n’t miss none of the doings.” He tilted his head 
toward Dade’s ear and jerked his thumb towards the 
wagon. (( Say ! I brought the boys along, in case — ” 
His left eyelid lowered lazily and flew up again into 
its normal position as Don Andres, his sombrero in his 
hand, came towards them across the patio, smiling a 
dignified welcome. 

Dade spoke not a word in reply, but his eyes bright- 
ened wonderfully. There was still the element of 
danger, and on a larger scale than ever. But it was 
heartening to have Bill Wilson’s capable self to stand 
beside him. Bill could handle turbulent crowds better 
than any man Dade had ever seen. 

They lingered, greeting acquaintances here and there 
among the arrivals, until Bill was at liberty again. 

“ Got any greaser here that can talk white man’s 
talk, and you can trust ? ” was Bill’s mild way of in- 
dicating his need of an interpreter, when the fiesta 
crowd had grown to the proportions of a multitude 
that buzzed like giant bees in a tree of ripe figs. 

“ Why? What do you want of one? Valencia will 
help you out, I guess.” Dade’s hesitation was bom 
of inattention rather than reluctance. He was watch- 
ing the gesticulating groups of Californians as a gam- 
bler watches the faces of his opponents, and the little 
weather-signs did not reassure him. 


288 


THE GRINGOS 


“ Well, there ’s good money to be picked out of this 
crowd,” said Bill, pushing his hands deep into his 
pockets. “ I can’t understand their lingo, but faces 
talk one language ; and I don’t care what ’s the color 
of the skin. I ’ve been reading what ’s wrote in their 
eyes and around their mouths. I can get big odds on 
Jack, here, if I can find somebody to talk for me. How 
about it, Jack? I’ve heard some say there’s more 
than the gold medal and a horse up on this lariat game. 
I ’ve heard some say you two have put your necks in 
the jack-pot. On the quiet, what do you reckon you ’re 
going to do to the greaser ? ” 

Jack shifted his glance to Dade’s face, tense with 
anxiety while he waited. He looked out over the slope 
dotted thickly with people, laughed briefly and mirth- 
lessly, and then looked full at Bill. 

“ I reckon I ’m going to kill him,” he said very 
quietly. 

Big Bill stared. u Say ! I ’m glad I ain’t the 
greaser,” he said dryly, answering a certain something 
in Jack’s eyes and around his lips. Bill had heard 
men threaten death, before now ; but he did not think 
of this as a threat. To him it seemed a sentence of 
death. 

“ J ack, you ’ll be sorry for it,” warned Dade under 
his breath. “ Don’t go and — ” 


FIESTA DAY 


289 


“ I don’t want to hear any remarks on the subject.” 
Never in all the years of their friendship had Jack 
spoken to him in so harsh a tone. “ God Almighty 
could n’t talk me out of it. I ’m going to kill him. 
Let it go at that.” He turned abruptly and walked 
away to the stable, and the two stood perfectly still 
and watched him out of sight. 

“ He ’ll do it, too,” said Dade distressfully. 
“ There ’s something in this I don’t understand — but 
he ’ll do it.” 


CHAPTER XXII 


THE BATTLE OF BEASTS 

S WEATING, impatient humans wedged tight upon 
the seats around the rim of the great adobe corral, 
waited for the bulls to dash in through the gate and 
be goaded into the frenzy that would thrill the spec- 
tators pleasurably. Meantime, those spectators munched 
sweets and gossiped, smoked cigarettes and gossiped; 
sweltered under the glare of the sun and gossiped; 
and always they talked of the gringos, who had come 
one hundred strong and never a woman among them; 
one hundred strong, and every man of them dangling 
pistols at his hips — pistols that could shoot six times 
before they must be reloaded, and shoot with marvelous 
exactness of aim at that ; one hundred strong, and every 
one of the hundred making bets that the gringo with 
the red-brown hair would win the medalla oro from 
Don Jose, who three times had fought and kept it flash- 
ing on his breast, so that now no vaquero dared lift 
eyes to it! 

Truly, those gringos were a mad people, said the 


THE BATTLE OF BEASTS 291 

gossips. They would see the blue-eyed one flung dead 
upon the ground, and then — would the gringos want 
to fight ? Knives were instinctively loosened under 
sashes when the owners talked of the possibility. 
Knives are swift and keen, but those guns that could 
shoot six times with one loading — Gossip preferred 
to dwell greedily upon the details of the quarrel be- 
tween the young Don Jose and his gringo rival. 

There were whispers also of a quarrel between the 
senorita and her gringo lover, and it was said that the 
young senorita prayed last night that Jose would win. 
But there were other whispers than that: One, that 
the maid of the senorita had been seen to give a rose 
and a written message into the hands of the Senor 
Allen, not an hour ago; and had gone singing to her 
mistress again, and smiling while she sang. Truly, 
that did not look as if the senorita had prayed for 
Jose ! The Senor Allen had kept the rose. Look you ! 
It was a token, and he would doubtless wear it upon 
his breast in the fight, where he hoped later to wear 
the medalla oro — but where the hands would be folded 
instead while the padres said mass for him; if indeed 
mass could be said over a dead gringo! There was 
laughter to follow that conceit. And so they talked, and 
made the tedious time of waiting seem shorter than it 


was. 


292 THE GRINGOS 

Late comers looked for seats, found none, and were 
forced to content themselves with such perches as 
neighboring trees and the roofs of the outbuildings 
might afford. Peons who had early scrambled to the 
insecure vantage-point of the nearest stable roof, were 
hustled off to make room for a group of Salinas 
Caballeros who arrived late. This was merely the bull- 
fighting coming now; but bull-fighting never palls, 
even though bigger things are yet in store. For there 
is always the chance that a horse may be gored to death 
— even that a man may die horribly. Such things have 
been and may be again ; so the tardy ones climbed and 
scurried and attained breathlessness and a final resting- 
place together. 

Came a season of frenzied yelling, breathless mo- 
ments of suspense, and stamping that threatened dis- 
aster to the seats. Two bulls in succession had been 
let into the corral, bellowed under the shower of be- 
ribboned barbs and went down, fighting valiantly to 
the last. 

Blood-lusting, the great crowd screamed importuni- 
ties for more. “ Bring out the bear ! ” was their de- 
mand. “ Let us see that she-bear fight the big bull 
which has been reserved for the combat ! 99 

Now, this was ticklish work for the Picardo vaqueros 
who were stage-managing the sport. From the top of 


THE BATTLE OF BEASTS 293 

the corral above the bear-cage they made shift to slide 
the oaken gate built across an opening into the adobe 
corral. Through the barred ceiling of the pen they 
prodded the bear from her sulking and sent her, malevo- 
lent and sullen, into the arena. (Senoras tucked vivid 
skirts closer about stocky ankles and sent murmurous 
appeals to their patron saints, and sehoritas squealed 
in trepidation that was at least half sincere. It was a 
very big bear, and she truly looked very fierce and as 
if she would think nothing of climbing the adobe wall 
and devouring a whole front seat full of fluttering 
femininity ! Rosa screamed and was immediately reas- 
sured, when Teresita reminded her that those fierce 
gringos across the corral had many guns.) 

The bear did not give more than one look of hatred 
at the flutter above. Loose-skinned and loose- jointed she 
shambled across the corral ; lifted her pointed nose to 
sniff disgustedly the air tainted with the odor of enemies 
whom she could not reach with her huge paws, and went 
on. Clear around the corral she walked, her great, 
hand-like feet falling as silently as the leaf shadows that 
splashed one whole corner and danced all over her back 
when she passed that way; back to the pen where her 
two cubs whimpered against the bars, and watched her 
wishfully with pert little tiltings of their heads. (Te- 
resita was confiding to Rosa, beside her, that they would 


294 THE GRINGOS 

each have a cub for a pet when the mother bear was 
killed). 

Valencia and Pancho and one other were straining 
to shift the gate of another pen. It was awkward, since 
they must work from the top ; for the adobe corral was 
as the jaws of a lion while the bear circled watch- 
fully there, and the pen they were striving to open was 
no safer, with the big, black bull rolling bloodshot eyes 
at them from below. He had been teased with clods 
of dirt and small stones flung at him. He had shaken 
the very posts in their sockets with the impact of his 
huge body while he tried to reach his tormentors, until 
they desisted in the fear that he would break his horns 
off in his rage and so would cheat them of the sight 
of the good, red blood of the she-bear. How he was 
in a fine, fighting mood, and he had both horns with 
which to fight. From his muzzle dribbled the froth 
of his anger, as he stiffened his great neck and rumbled 
a challenge to all the world. Twice, when the gate 
moved an inch or two and creaked with straining, he 
came at it so viciously that it jammed again; indeed, 
it was the batterings of the bull that had made it so 
hard to open. 

Valencia, catching a timbered crosspiece, gave it a 
lift and a heave. The gate came suddenly free and slid 
back as they strained at the crosspiece. 


THE BATTLE OF BEASTS 295 

The hull, from the far side of the pen where he had 
hacked for another rush, shot clear through the opening 
and half-way across the adobe corral before he realized 
that he was free. 

The bear, at pause in her circlings while she snuffed 
at the bars that now separated her from her cubs, 
whirled and lifted herself awkwardly upon her 
haunches, her narrow head thrust forward sinisterly as 
she faced this fresh annoyance. Midway, the hull 
stopped with two or three stiff-legged jumps and glared 
at her, a little chagrined, perhaps, at the sudden trans- 
formation from human foe to this grizzled hill-giant 
whom instinct had taught him to fear. In his calf- 
hood he had fled many times before the menace of 
grizzly, and perhaps he remembered. At any rate he 
stiffened his forelegs, stopped short, and glared. 

Up above, the breaths that had been held came in a 
shout together. Everyone who saw the pause yelled to 
the bull to go on and prove his courage. And the hull, 
when the first shock of surprise and distaste had passed, 
hacked ominously, head lowered, tail switching in spas- 
modic jerks from side to side. The hear stood a little 
straighter in her defiance; her head went forward an 
inch ; beyond that she did not move, for her tactics were 
not to rush hut to w$it, and to put every ounce of her 
terrible strength into the meeting. 


296 THE GRINGOS 

The neck of the bull swelled and curved, his eyeballs 
showed glassy. His back humped; like a bowlder 
hurled down a mountain slope he made his rush, and 
nothing could swerve him. 

The bear might have dodged, and sent him crashing 
against the wall. Men hoped that she would, and so 
prolong the excitement. But she did not. She stood 
there and waited, her forepaws outspread as if for an 
embrace. 

Like a bullet sent true to the target, the head of 
the bull met the gaunt, ungainly, gray shape; met and 
went down, the tip of one sharp horn showing in the 
rough hair of her back, her body collapsing limply across 
the neck she had broken with one tremendous side-blow 
as he struck. A moment she struggled and clawed 
futilely to free herself, then lay as quiet as the bull 
himself. And so that spectacle ended swiftly and sud- 
denly. 

In the reaction which followed that ten-seconds’ sus- 
pense, men grumbled because it had ended so soon. 
But, upon second thoughts, its very brevity brought the 
duel just that much closer, and so they heaved great 
sighs of relaxation and began craning and looking for 
the two to enter who would fight to the death with 
xiatas. 

Instead, entered the gringo whom Don Andres had 


THE BATTLE OF BEASTS 297 

foolishly chosen for majordomo, and stood in the mid- 
dle of the corral, quietly waiting while the vaqueros 
with their horses and riatas dragged away the carcasses 
of the bull and the hear. 

When the main gate slammed shut behind them, 
Dade lifted his eyes to that side of the corral where 
the Californians were massed clannishly together, and 
raised his hands for silence; got it by degrees, as a 
clamoring breaker subsides and dwindles to little, whis- 
pering ripple sounds; and straightway began in the 
sonorous melody of the Castilian tongue which had been 
brought, pure and undefiled, from Spain and had not 
yet been greatly corrupted into the dialect spoken to-day 
among the descendants and called Spanish. 

“ Senors, and Senoras ” (so he began), “ the hour 
is now midday, and there are many who have come far 
and are wearied. In the orchard you will find re- 
freshment for all ; and your host, Don Andres Picardo, 
desires me to say for him that he will be greatly 
honored if you will consider that all things are yours 
to be used for your comfort and pleasure. 

“ In two hours, further sports will take place, in 
the open beyond this corral, so that the seats which you 
now occupy will serve also to give a fair view of the 
field. There will he riding contests, free for all 
Caballeros to enter who so desire, and the prize will 


298 


THE GRINGOS 


be a beautiful silver-trimmed bridle that may be seen 
at the saddle house. After the riding, there will be 
a contest in the lassoing and tying down of wild steers, 
for which a prize of a silver hatband and spurs will 
be given by Don Andres Picardo, your host. Also there 
will be the riding of bulls; and the prize for the most 
skillful rider will be a silver-mounted quirto of beauti- 
ful design. 

“ Immediately after these various contests ” — Dade 
could see the tensing of interest among his listeners 
then — “ there will be a contest with riatas between 
Don Jose Pacheco and Senor Jack Allen, an Americano 
vaquero from Texas. As the prize for this contest, Don 
Andres offers Solano, a gelding, four years of age and 
unbroken. But Don Andres makes this condition : that 
the winner shall lasso his prize in this corral, and ride 
him before you all. If he should chance to be thrown, 
then the prize shall be forfeited to the other contestant, 
who will also be required to ride the horse before you 
all. If he also shall fail to ride fhe caballo, then will 
the horse revert to Don Andres, who will keep him for 
his own saddle horse ! ” He waited while the applause 
at this sly bit of humor gradually diminished into the 
occasional pistol-popping of enthusiastic palms, and 
gestured for silence that he might speak again. 

“I am also instructed to inform you that not alone 


THE BATTLE OF BEASTS 299 

for the prize which Don Andres offers will the contest 
he fought. I am requested to announce that the Texas 
vaquero, Senor Jack Allen, hereby publicly challenges 
Don Jose Pacheco to contest for the gold medal which 
now rests in the possession of Don Jose. Senors and 
Senoras, I thank you for attending so graciously to 
my words, and I wish to ask for continued attention 
while I announce the sports to these Americanos who 
do not understand the Spanish, and who are also the 
guests of Don Andres Picardo, your host.” 

He bowed low before them, turned and told Bill 
Wilson’s solemnly attentive crowd what was to take 
place after the feast. Hot so elaborate; terse, that he 
might not try the politeness of that other crowd too 
far. And when he was done he stopped himself on 
the verge of saying more, reconsidered and, trusting to 
the fact that scarce a Spaniard there spoke English, 
added a warning. 

“ I hope you all realize,” he said, “ that we ’re 
anxious to have everything go off peaceably. We look 
to you men to see that, whatever may happen, there 
shall be no disturbance. Such things are easier started 
than stopped; and, just as a hint of what will do the 
most to keep the peace, I want to announce that the 
water on this rancho can’t be beat, and can safely be 
used for drinking purposes ! ” 


300 THE GRINGOS 

“ Water goes, m’ son, or I ’ll know the reason why,” 
called Bill Wilson, and the palms of his crowd clapped 
vigorous assent. 

“ That thar ’s the sensihlest thing you ’ve said, so 
fur,” approved J erry Simpson, beside Bill. “ Me an’ 
the twins ’ll stand guard, if necessary, and see ’t that 
thar hint is took.” Whereat Bill Wilson clapped him 
on the shoulder approvingly. 

There was the hum of confusion while the hungry 
sought the barbecue pits. Dade, his face settled into 
gloomy foreboding in spite of certain heartening cir- 
cumstances, went slowly away to his room; where Jack, 
refusing to take any interest in the sports, lay sprawled 
upon the bed with a cigarette gone cold between his 
lips and his eyes fixed hardly upon the ceiling. 

Dade gave him a look to measure the degree of his 
unapproachable mood, sighed wearily and flung his 
silver-spangled sombrero petulantly into a corner. 

“ Damn ! ” he said viciously, as if his vocabulary 
was so inadequate to voice his emotions that the one 
expletive would do as well as any to cover his meaning ; 
and sat down heavily in a cushioned chair. 

Two minutes, perhaps, of silence, while from sheer 
force of habit he rolled a cigarette he did not want. 

Then Jack moved his head on the pillow so that he 
could look at Dade. 


THE BATTLE OF BEASTS 301 


“ I wish you would n’t take my affairs so to heart/’ 
he said, apathy fighting his understanding and his ap- 
preciation of a friend like this. “ I’d be a whole lot 
easier in my mind if I did n’t know you were worried 
half to death. And it ’s no good worrying, Dade. Some 
things just come at a fellow, head down; and they have 
to be met, if we expect to look anybody in the face 
again.” He shifted his head impatiently and stared 
again at the ceiling. “ I ’d rather be dead than a 
coward,” he said, speaking low. 

“ Oh, I know. But — men are just beasts with 
clothes on their backs. Did you hear them yelling, 
awhile ago? That was when beasts just as human as 
they are under the skin, fought and killed each other, 
so those yelling maniacs could get a thrill or two.” 
He searched his pockets for a match, found one and 
drew it glumly along the sole of his high-heeled, calf- 
skin boot with its embroidered top of yellow silk on 
red morocco. 

“ That ’s what makes me sick to the stomach,” he 
went on. “ They ’ll sit and watch you two, and they ’ll 
gloat over the spectacle — ” 

A brisk tattoo of knuckles on the oaken door stopped 
him. Bill came in, grinning with satisfaction over 
something. 

“ Say, I ’ve been getting bets laid down five and 


302 


THE GRINGOS 


six to one, on the greaser,” he exulted. “ You go in 
and clean him up, Jack, and we ’ll skin this outfit 
down to their shirts ! All the boys have been taking 
every bet that was offered; and the old don, I guess, 
is about the only greaser on the place that ain’t bet all 
he ’s got. Three-to-one that J ose gets you the third 
pass, m’ son ! Now, I don’t know a damned thing 
about this here lasso business, but I took ’em on that, 
and so did a lot of the boys; and from that up to 
six-to-one that he ’ll get you! Want to lay a few bets 
yourself, you and Dade ? That ’s what I come to find 
out.” 

Dade threw out both hands in disgust with the idea ; 
revolted unexpectedly at the thought of being accused 
of failing to back his friendship with money as well 
as with every fiber of his loyal being, and turned sourly 
to Bill. “ I ’ve got something like six or eight hundred 
in dust,” he said. “ Lend me enough to make it a 
thousand, and put ’er up. Take any odds they offer, 
damn ’em. It ’ll be blood money, win or lose, but — 
put ’er up. They can’t yowl around that I ’m afraid 
to back him down to my boots.” 

“ That ’s the kinda talk ! ” approved Bill. “ Make 
’em take water all around, the swine! And the boys 
’ll see they cough up afterwards, too. I guess — ” He 
checked himself and went out, still grinning. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


THE DUEL OF RIATAS 

“r | ^ HEY ’RE riding the last bull,” announced 
A Dade, coming into the room again where Jack 
was dressing for the supreme test of the day. “ I ’ve 
got your plan for the ground explained to Valencia 
and Pancho, and Diego’s shining Surry up till you 
can see your face in him. You ought to be thankful 
there ’s somebody on the lookout as faithful as that 
Injun. I just discovered he has n’t had a bite to eat 
since last night, because he would n’t leave Surry long 
enough to get anything. I hope you ’re grateful.” 

“ I am,” said Jack shortly. “ But I ’ve no business 
to be. Right now I don’t believe much in the sloppy 
whine of gratitude or the limber-backed prayer for 
mercy. Thankful or not, we get what we get. Eate 
hands it out to us; and we may as well take it and 
keep our mouths shut.” 

“ That ’s the result of cooping yourself in here all 
day, just thinking and smoking cigarettes,” grumbled 
Dade, himself worried to the point of nervous petu- 


304 


THE GRINGOS 


lance. If he could have taken his own riata and fought 
also, he would have been much nearer his usual calm, 
humorous self. 

“ Say, I told Jose the rules you suggested, and he 
agreed to every one like a gentleman. He just came, 
and Manuel with him leading the horse Jose means 
to use; a big, black brute with a chest on him like a 
lion. His crowd stood on their hind legs and yelled 
themselves purple when they saw him come riding 
up.” 

u Well, that ’s what they Ve come for — to yell over 
Jose.” Jack held three new neckties to the light, try- 
ing to choose the one he would wear. 

“ Say — ” Dade hesitated, looking doubtfully at 
the other. 

“ Well ? Say it.” Jack chose a deep crimson and 
flung the loop over his head as if he were arraying 
himself for a ball. 

“ It may be some advantage to know . . . I’ve 
watched J os6 lasso cattle ; he always uses — ” 

“ Stop right there! ” Jack swung to face him. “ I 
don’t want to know how Jose works with his riata. He 
don’t know any of my little kinks, don’t you see? I 
never,” he added, after a little silence, “ started out 
with the deliberate intention of killing a man, before. 
I can’t take any advantage, Dade ; you know that, just 


THE DUEL OF RIATAS 305 

as well as I do.” He tried to smile, to soften the re- 
buff — and he failed. 

Dade went up and laid a contrite hand upon his 
shoulder. “ You ’re a better man than I am, Jack,” 
he asserted humbly. “ But it ’s hell for me to stand 
back and let you go into this thing alone. I ’ve got 
piles of confidence in you, old boy — but Jose never 
got that medal by saying ‘ pretty, please ’ and holding 
out his hand. The best lassoer in California means 
something. And he means to kill you — ” 

<c If I ’ll let him,” put in Jack, stretching his lips 
in what passed for a grin. 

“ I know — but you ’ve been off the range for two 
years, just about; and you’ve had a little over three 
weeks to make up for that lost practice.” His eyes 
caught their two reflections in the glass, and some- 
thing in Jack’s made him smile ruefully. “ Kick me 
good,” he advised. “ I need it. I ’ve got nerves worse 
than any old woman. I know you ’ll come out on top. 
You always do. But — what ’n hell made you say 
riatas ? ” 

“ What ’n hell made you brag about me to Manuel ? ” 
Jack came back instantly, and was sorry for it when 
he saw how Dade winced. u Honest, I ’m not a bit 
scared. I know what I can do, and I ’m not worrying.” 
u You are. I never saw you so queer as you have 


306 THE GRINGOS 

been since I came back. You ’re no more like yourself 
than — ” 

“ Well — but it ain’t the duel altogether.” J ack 
hesitated. “ Say, Dade ! Did — er — did Teresita 
take in all the sports ? Bull fight and all \ ” 

“ Yes. She and that friend of hers from the Mis- 
sion were in the front row having the time of their 
lives. Is that talk true about — ” Dade eyed him 
sharply. 

“ You go on and get things ready. In five minutes 
I ’ll expect to make my little bow to Fate.” 

Outside in the sunshine, men waited and clamored 
greedily for more excitement. All day they had waited 
for the duel, at most merely appeased by the other 
sports; and now, with Jose actually among them, and 
with the wine they had drunk to heat their blood and 
the mob-psychology working its will of them, they were 
scarce human, but rather a tremendous battle beast per- 
sonified by dark, eager faces and tongues that wagged 
continually and with prejudice. 

A group of spur- jingling vaqueros, chosen because 
of their well-broken mounts, rode out in front of the 
adobe corral and the expectant audience, halted and 
dispersed to their various stations as directed by Dade, 
clear-voiced, steady of glance, unemotional, as if he 
were in charge of a bit of work from habit gone stale. 


THE DUEL OF RIATAS 307 

He might confess to “ nerves ” in private ; in public, 
there were men who marveled at his calm. 

Riatas uncoiled and with each end fastened to a 
saddle horn, the vaqueros filed out from the corral in 
two straight lines, with Dade and Valencia to lead the 
way. When they were placed to Dade’s liking, the 
riatas fenced in a rectangle two hundred yards long, 
and one-third that distance across. At each riata 
length, all down the line, a vaquero sat quiet upon his 
horse, a living fence-post holding the riata fence tight 
and straight. Down the middle of the arena thus 
formed easily with definite boundaries, peons were 
stretching, upon forked stakes, a rope spliced to reach 
the whole six hundred feet — save that a space of fifty 
feet was left open at each end so that the combatants 
might, upon occasion, change sides easily. 

Twice Dade paced the width of the area to make 
sure that the dividing line marked the exact center. 
When the last stake was driven deep and the rope was 
knotted securely in place, he rode straight to the corral 
and pulled up before the judges’ stand for his final 
announcement. 

It was a quiet crowd now that he faced. A mass of 
men and women, tense, silent, ears and eyes strained 
to miss no smallest detail. He had no need to lift his 
hand for their attention; he had it — had it to the 


308 THE GRINGOS 

extent that every man there was unconscious of his 
neighbor. That roped area was something new, some- 
thing they had not been expecting. Also the thing 
Dade told them sounded strange to these hot-blooded 
ones, who had looked forward to a whirlwind battle, 
with dust and swirling riatas and no law except the 
law of chance and superior skill and cunning. 

“ The two who will fight with riatas for the medalla 
oro and for the prize which Don Andres offers to the 
victor,” he began, “ have agreed upon certain rules 
which each has promised to observe faithfully, that 
skill rather than luck may be the chief factor in the 
fight. These are the rules of the contest: 

“ None but those two, Don Jose Pacheco and Senor 
Allen, will be permitted within the square we have 
marked off for them after the first signal shot is fired. 
They will toss a coin for first position and will start 
from opposite ends of the ground. At the signal, which 
will be a pistol shot, they will mount and ride with the 
center rope between them. Upon meeting ” — he 
stopped long enough for a quick smile — “ they will 
try what they can do. If both miss, they will coil their 
riatas and hang them from the horn, and ride on to 
the end; there they will dismount and wait for the 
second signal for starting. 

“ They will repeat these maneuvers until the con- 


THE DUEL OF RIATAS 309 


test is decided, one way or the other, but at no time 
will they start before the signal is given. 

“ Remember, no one else will be permitted inside 
the line, at any time; also, neither of the contestants 
may pass the dividing line unless he has the other at 
his mercy — when — he may cross if he chooses.” It 
cost Dade something, that last sentence, but he said it 
firmly; repeated the rules more briefly in English and 
rode out of the square, a vaquero slackening the first 
riata of the line to leave a space for him to pass. And 
as he went, there was nothing in his manner to show 
how ticklish he felt the situation to be. 

Only, when he came upon Jack, just riding out from 
the stable upon Surry, his lips drew tight and thin. 
But he merely waved his hand and went on to tell 
Jose that he wanted Manuel to give the signals, for 
then all would be sure that there would be no un- 
fairness. 

He was gone perhaps two minutes; yet when he re- 
turned with Manuel glowering beside him, that fenced 
area was lined four deep with horsemen all around; 
and so had they segregated themselves instinctively, 
friend with friend, that the northern side was a mass 
of bright colors to show that there stood the Spanish 
Caballeros; and opposite them, a more motley showing 
and yet a more sinister one, stood the Americanos, with 


310 THE GRINGOS 

Bill Wilson pressed against the rope half-way down the 
line, and beside him big Jerry Simpson, lounging upon 
Moll, his black mule. 

Instinctively, Dade rode around to them, beckoning 
Manuel to follow; and placed him between Jerry and 
Bill; explained that Manuel was to fire the starting 
signals, and smiled his thanks when Jerry promptly 
produced one of his “ twins ” and placed it in Man- 
uel’s hands. 

“ P’int her nose in the air, mister, when you turn 
her loose,” he advised solemnly. “ She J s loaded fur 
b’ar!” 

“ Keep your eyes open,” Dade warned Bill Wilson 
when he turned to ride back; and Bill nodded under- 
standing^. Bill, for that matter, usually did keep 
his eyes open, and to such purpose that nothing es- 
caped them. 

Back at the corral, Dade saw Jack waiting upon 
Surry in the shade of the adobe wall until the moment 
came for entering the arena. Near to him, Jose calmed 
his big, black horse and waited also, cold hauteur the 
keynote of his whole attitude. Dade waved his hand 
to them, and they followed him into the empty rectangle. 
Prom the crowd came a rustle as of a gust of wind 
through treetops; then they were still again, watching 
and waiting and listening. 


THE DUEL OF RIATAS 311 

Those for whom they had watched all day at last 
stood side by side before them ; and the picture they 
made must have pleased the most exacting eye that 
looked down upon them. 

For Jose was all black and silver, from the tasseled, 
silver cord upon his embroidered sombrero to the great 
silver rowels of his spurs. Black velvet jacket, black 
velvet breeches with silver braid glistening in heavy, 
intricate pattern ; black hair, black eyes — and a black 
frown, withal, and for good reason, perhaps. For, 
thinking to win a smile from her who had sent the glove 
and the message, Jose looked towards the nearest and 
most comfortable seat, where Teresita sat, smiling and 
resplendent, between her mother and Rosa. He had 
looked, had Jose, and had seen her smile; but he saw 
that it was not at him she smiled, but at Jack. It 
is true, the smile may have been merely scornful; but 
Jose was in no mood for nice analysis, and the hurt 
was keen enough because she smiled at all, and it made 
his mood a savage one. 

Jack was all white and red save for the saddle, which 
was black with silver trimmings ; and Surry, milk white 
from ears to heel, served to complete the picture satisfy- 
ingly. Diego must have put an extra crimp in mane 
and tail, for the waves were beautiful to behold ; he had 
surely polished the hoofs so that they shone ; and nature 


312 THE GRINGOS 

had done the rest, when she made Surry the proud, 
gentle, high-stepping animal he was. J ack wore 
breeches and jacket of soft, white leather — and none 
but Bill Wilson knew what they had cost in time, 
trouble, and money. A red, silk sash was knotted about 
his middle ; the flaming, crimson tie fluttered under his 
chin; and he was bareheaded, so that his coppery hair 
lifted from his untanned forehead in the breeze, and 
made many a senorita’s pulse quicken admiringly. 
For Jack, think what you will of him otherwise, was 
extremely good to look upon. 

“ Heads for Don Jose ! ” A Mexican dollar, spun 
high in air from Dade’s fingers, glittered and fell 
straight. Three heads bent to see which side came 
uppermost, and thousands of necks craned futilely. 

“ Don Jose will choose his starting-point,” Dade 
called out. “ But first the two will lead their horses 
over the ground, so that they may make sure that there 
are no holes or stones to trip them.” 

Even in that preliminary, they showed how differently 
two persons will go about doing the same thing. Jose, 
trailing immense, silver spur-rowels, walked with the 
bridle reins looped over his arm, his eyes examining 
critically every foot of the ground as he passed. 

Jack, loosening his riata as he dismounted, caught 
the loop over the high horn and let the rope drop to the 


THE DUEL OF RIATAS 313 

ground. He wore no spurs; and as for Surry, he had 
no bridle and bit, but a backamore instead. 

Jack threw the reins over the neck of the horse. 
u Come, old fellow,” he said, quite as if he were speak- 
ing to a person, and started off. And Surry, his neck 
arched, his ears perked knowingly, stepped out after 
him with that peculiar, springy gait that speaks elo- 
quently of perfect muscles and a body fairly vibrating 
with energy; the riata trailed after him, every little 
tendency towards a kink taken out of it. 

“ Dios ! What a caballo is that white one ! ” Dade 
heard a Salinas man exclaim, and flushed at the praise. 

Back they came, Jack and Surry, with Jack ten feet 
in advance of the horse ; for J ose had chosen to remain 
at the southern end, with the sun at his left shoulder. 
Jack, for all his eagerness to begin, found time to shake 
hands with Bill and say a word to some others as he 
passed — and those eyes up there that watched did not 
miss one single movement. 

“ Look, you ! The gringo is telling his friends adios 
while he may ! ” some one shouted loudly from across 
the arena; and a great laugh roared from the throats 
that were dark, and hand-clapping at the witticism 
made the speaker a self-conscious caballero indeed. 

At the corral, which was his starting-point, Jack took 
up the dragging riata, and with his handkerchief wiped 


314 


THE GRINGOS 


off the dust while he coiled it again; hung it over the 
saddle horn and waited for the signal. 

He was scowling now at certain remarks that came 
to his ears from the seats, with titters and chuckles to 
point their wit. But he sent a cheering eye-signal to 
Dade, whose face was strained and noticeably white 
under the tan. 

Half-way down the line, among the Americans, there 
was a little stir, and then a pistol barked with that loud 
crash which black powder makes. Jack, on the instant 
when the smoke curled up in a little, balloon-like puff, 
furned and leaped into the saddle. The duel of riatas 
was begun. 


CHAPTER XXIV 


FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL 

D OWH the roped lane thundered Jose, whirling 
his riata over his head till the loop had taken 
full twenty of the sixty feet of rawhide. 

Galloping to meet him, Jack gave his rope a forward, 
downward fling and formed a little loop — a loop not 
one-third the size of Jose’s — and held it dangling be- 
side Surry’s shoulder. So, at the very start, they 
showed themselves different in method, even though 
they might be the same in skill. 

They met, with fifteen feet between them as they 
flashed past. Jose flung out his lifted hand. The 
loop hissed and shot straight for J ack’s head. 

Jack flung out his little loop, struck the big one 
fairly, and threw it aside. Even so, the end might have 
caught him, but for the lengthening lunge which Surry 
made in mid-air. The loop flecked Surry’s crinkled 
tail and he fled on to the far end and stopped in two 
short, stiff-legged jumps. 

As Jack coiled his riata and slid off he heard the 


316 


THE GRINGOS 


caballeros yelling praise of Jose. But he did not mind 
that in the least. In that one throw he had learned 
Jose’s method; the big loop, the overhead swirl — di- 
rect, bullet-swift, deadly in its aim. He knew now 
what Dade had wanted to tell him — what it was vital 
that he should know. And — he hugged the thought 
— Jose did not know his method; not yet. 

A shot, and he was off again with his little loop. 
Jose, like a great, black bird, flew towards him with the 
big loop. As they neared he saw Jose’s teeth show in 
the smile of hate. He waited, his little loop ready for 
the fling should his chance come. 

Jose was over-eager. The great, rawhide hoop 
whistled and shot down aslant like the swoop of a night- 
hawk. Surry’s eye was upon it unwinkingly. He saw 
where the next leap would bring him within its ter-, 
rible grip, and he made that leap to one side instead, 
so that the rawhide thudded into the dust alongside his 
nose. He swerved again lest Jose in jerking it up 
should catch his feet, and went on with an exultant 
toss of his white head. It was the game he knew — 
the game Diego had played with him many times, to 
the discomfiture of the peon. 

“ He is a devil — that white caballo ! ” cried a 
chagrined voice from among the vaqueros crowding the 
ropes so that they bulged inward. 


FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL 317 

“ Hah ! devil or no, they will go down, those two 
white ones ! Saw you the look of Jose as he passed ? 
He has been playing with them for the sport of the 
people. Look you ! I have gold on that third throw. 
The next time — it is as Jose chooses — ” 

The bark of the pistol cut short the boastings of that 
vaquero. This was the third pass, and much Spanish 
gold would be lost upon that throw if Jose missed. 

“ Three to one, m’ son,” bawled Bill Wilson remind- 
ingly, as Jack loped past with his little loop hanging 
beside him, ready but scarcely seeming so. Jose was 
coming swiftly, the big horse lunging against the Span- 
ish bit, his knees flung high with every jump he made, 
like a deer leaping through brush. And there was the 
great, rawhide loop singing its battle-song over his 
head, with the soft who-oo-oo before he released it for 
the flight. 

He aimed true — but Surry had also a nice eye for 
distance. He did not swerve ; he simply stiffened every 
muscle and stopped short. Even as he did so the black 
horse plunged past ; and J ack, lifting his hand, whirled 
his loop swiftly once to open it, and gave it a backward 
fling. 

Straight past his shoulder it shot, whimpering, fol- 
lowing, reaching — the force of the fling carrying it 
far, far . . . Jose heard it whining behind him, glanced 


318 


THE GRINGOS 


quickly, thought to beat it to the end of its leash. He 
leaned far over — farther, so that his cheek touched the 
flying black mane of his horse. He dug deep with his 
spurs — but he dug too late. 

The little loop narrowed — it had reached as far as 
sixty feet of rawhide could reach and have any loop 
at all. It sank, and caught the outflung head of the 
black horse; slid back swiftly and caught Jose as the 
horse lunged and swung short around; tightened and 
pressed Jose’s cheek hard against the black mane as the 
rawhide drew tight across the back of his neck. 

The black horse plunged and tried to back away; the 
white one stiffened against the pull of the rope. Be- 
tween the two of them, they came near finishing Jose 
once for all. And from the side where stood the white 
men came the vicious sound of a pistol shot. 

“ Slack, Surry ! ” J ack, on the ground, glimpsed the 
purpling face of his foe. “ Slack, you devil ! ” 

Near sixty feet he had to run — and Jose was 
strangling before his eyes; strangling, because Surry’s 
instant obedience was offset by Jose’s horse, who, facing 
the other at the first jerk of the riata, backed involun- 
tarily with the pull of the pinioned reins. The Spanish 
bit was cutting his mouth cruelly, and Jose’s frenzied 
clawing could not ease the cruel strain upon either of 
them. 


FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL 319 

A few terrible seconds, and then J ack overtook them, 
caught the horse by the bridle, and stopped him; and 
the blood which the cruel bit had brought when the 
spade cut deep, stained Jack’s white clothes red where 
it fell. 

“ Slack, Surry ! Come on ! ” he cried, his voice harsh 
with the stress of that moment. And when the rawhide 
hung loose between the two horses he freed Jose of the 
deadly noose, and saw where it had burnt raw the skin 
of his neck on the side where it touched. A snaky, six- 
strand riata can be a rather terrible weapon, he decided, 
while he loosed it and flung it from him. 

Jose, for the first time getting breath enough to gasp, 
tried to straighten himself in the saddle; lurched, and 
would have gone off on his head if Jack had not put 
up a hand to steady him. So he led him, a shaken, 
gasping, disarmed antagonist, across the little space that 
separated them from where Don Andres and four other 
Spanish gentlemen sat before the middle gate of the 
corral. 

“ Bravo ! ” cried a sweet, girl voice ; and a rose, 
blood-red and heavy with perfume, fell at Jack’s feet. 
He gave it one cold glance and let it lie. In another 
moment the black horse crushed it heedlessly beneath 
his hoof, as Jack turned to the judges. 

“ Senors, I bring you Don Jose Pacheco.” 


320 


THE GRINGOS 


So suddenly had the contest ended that those riders 
who helped to form the riata fence stood still in their 
places, as if another round had yet to be fought. Be- 
yond the pistol shot and the girl voice crying well done, 
the audience was quiet, waiting. 

Then Jose, sitting spent upon his horse, lifted a 
hand that shook weakly. His fingers fumbled at his 
breast, and he held out the shining medal of gold — the 
medal with diamonds prisoning the sunlight so that the 
trinket flashed in his hand. 

“ Senor,” he said huskily, “ the medalla — it is 
yours.” 

Jack looked at him; looked at the bent faces of the 
frowning judges; looked up at Teresita, watching the 
two with red lips parted and breath coming quickly; 
looked again queerly at Jose, gasping still, and holding 
out to him the medalla oro. Jack did a good deal of 
thinking in a very short space of time. 

“ I don’t want your medal,” he said. “ Let some 
Californian fight you for it, if he likes. That is not 
for a gringo.” 

Perhaps there was a shade of the theatrical element 
in his speech and his manner, hut he was perfectly inno- 
cent of any such intention; and the people before him 
were nothing if not dramatic. He got his response in 
the bravos and the applause that followed the silence 


FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL 321 

of sheer amazement. “ Gracias ! ” they cried, in their 
impulsive appreciation of his generosity. 

“ The horse which you offered for a prize, Don 
Andres, I will claim,” Jack went on, when he could 
he heard — and he did not wait long, for short-lived 
indeed is the applause given to an alien. “ And I will 
ride him as soon as you desire.” 

“ Yes ! Let us see him ride that caballo ! ” cried 
the fickle mass of humanity. “ By a trick of chance 
he won the duelo, and the medalla he refused because 
he knows it was not won fairly. Where is that yellow 
caballo which no man has ridden? Let him show us 
what he can do with that yellow one ! ” 

Dade, pushing his way exultantly toward him, saw 
the blaze of anger at their fickleness leap into Jack’s 
eyes. 

“ Si, I will show you ! ” he called out. “ It is well 
that you should see some horsemanship! Bring the 
yellow caballo, then. Truly, I will show you what I 
can do.” 

“ Come, Surry,” called Dade, and the white horse 
walked up to him and nibbled playfully his bearskin 
chaparejos. “ Solano ’s in the little corral, off this big 
one. I ’ll bring your saddle — ” 

“ I don’t want any saddle. I ’m going to ride him 
bareback, with a rope over his nose. Let me have your 


322 


THE GRINGOS 


spurs, will you ? Did you hear them say I won the duel 
with luck ? I ’ll show these greasers what a gringo can 
do ! ” He spoke in Spanish, to show his contempt of 
their opinion of him, and he curled his lip at the jibes 
they began to fling down at him; the jibes and the 
taunts — and vague threats as well, when those who 
had wagered much upon the duelo began to reckon 
mentally their losings. 

In the adobe corral he stood with his riata coiled in 
his hand and Dade’s spurs upon his heels, and waited 
until Solano, with a fling of heels into the air, rushed 
in from the pen where the big bull had waited until 
he was let out to fight the grizzly. 

“ Bareback he says he will ride that son of Satanas ! ” 
jeered a wine-roughened voice. “ Boaster that he is, 
look you how he stands! He is afraid even to lasso 
that yellow one ! ” 

Jack was indeed deliberate in his movements. He 
stood still while the horse circled him twice with head 
and tail held high. When Solano brought up with a 
flourish on the far side of the corral, Jack turned to 
Dade and Valencia standing guard at the main gate, 
their horses barring the opening. 

“ See that it ’s kept clear out in front,” he told 
them. “ I ’ll come out a-flying when I do come, most 
likely.” 


FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL 323 

Whereat those who heard him laughed derisively. 
“ Never to the gate will you ride him, gringo — even 
so you touch his back! Not twice will the devil give 
you luck/’ they yelled, while they scrambled for the 
choicest positions. 

Jack, standing in the center quietly, smiled at them, 
and gave the flip downward and forward that formed 
the little loop to which he seemed so partial. He tossed 
that loop upward, straight over his head ; a careless little 
toss, it looked to those who watched. His hand began 
to rotate upon his supple wrist joint — and like a live 
corkscrew the rawhide loop went up, and up, and up, 
and grew larger while it climbed. 

Solano snorted ; and the noise was like a gun in the 
dead silence while those thousands watched this miracle 
of a rawhide riata that apparently climbed of its own 
accord into the air. 

The loop, a good ten feet in diameter, swirled hori- 
zontally over his head. The coil in his hand was paid 
out until there was barely enough to give him power 
over the rest. His hand gave a quick motion sidewise, 
and the loop dropped true, and settled over the head 
of Solano. 

Jack flung a foot backward and braced himself for 
the pull, the riata drawn across one thigh in the “ hip- 
hold ” which cowboys use to-day when they rope from 


324 


THE GRINGOS 


the ground. Solano gave one frightened lunge and 
brought up trembling with surprise. 

That he knew nothing of the feel of a rope worked 
now to Jack’s advantage, for sheer astonishment held 
the horse quiet. A flip, and the riata curled in a half- 
hitch over Solano’s nose; and Jack was edging slowly 
towards him, his hands moving along the taut riata 
like a sailor climbing a rope. 

Solano backed, shook his head futilely, snorted, and 
rolled his eyes — mere frills of resentment that formed 
no real opposition to Jack’s purpose. Five minutes 
of manoeuvering to get close, and Jack had twisted his 
fingers in the tafly-colored mane; he went up, and 
landed fairly in the middle of Solano’s rounded back 
and began swiftly coiling the trailing riata. 

“ Get outa the way, there ! ” he yelled, and raked 
the big spurs backward when Solano’s forefeet struck 
the ground after going high in air. Like a bullet they 
went out of that corral and across the open space where 
the duel had been fought, with Dade and Valencia 
spurring desperately after. 

It took a long ten minutes to bring Solano back, 
chafing, but owning Jack’s mastery — for the time 
being, at least. He returned to a sullen audience, save 
where the Americans cheered him from their side of the 
corral. 


FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL 325 

“ He is a devil — that blue-eyed one ! ” the natives 
were saying grudgingly to one another ; but they were 
stubborn and would not cheer. “ Saw yop ever a riata 
thrown as he threw it ? Not Jose Pacheco himself ever 
did so impossible a thing; truly the devil is in that 
gringo.” So they muttered amongst themselves when 
he came back to the corral and slipped, laughing, from 
Solano’s sweat-roughened back. 

“ You can have your Surry ! ” he cried boastfully to 
Dade, who was the first to reach him. “ Give me a 
month to school him, and this yellow horse will be 
mighty near as good as your white one. I ’d rather 
have him than forty gold medals ! ” 

“ Senor,” — it was Jose, his neck wrapped in a white 
handkerchief, coming forward from where he had sat 
with Don Andres — “ Senor, I am sorry that I did not 
kill you; but yet I admire your skill, and I wish to 
thank you for your generosity ; the medalla is not mine, 
even though you refuse it. Since I have found one bet- 
ter than I, Don Andres shall keep the medalla until I or 
some other caballero has won it fairly. For my life, 
which you also refused to take, I — cannot thank you.” 

Jack looked at him intently. “ You will thank me,” 
he said grimly, “ later on.” 

Jose’s face went white. “ Senor, you do not 


mean — 


326 


THE GRINGOS 


“ I do mean — just that.” 

“ But, Senor — ” There are times when pride drops 
away from the proudest man and leaves him weak to 
the very core of him ; weak and humbled beyond words. 

Big Jerry Simpson saved that situation from be- 
coming intolerable. With Moll’s great ears flopping 
solemnly to herald his approach, Jerry rode up, per- 
fectly aware that he brought a murmur of curiosity 
from those who saw his coming. 

For Jerry was leading Manuel by the ear; Manuel 
with his hands tied behind him with Jerry’s red 
bandanna; Manuel with his lips drawn away from his 
teeth in the desire to kill, and his eyes sullen with the 
impotence of that desire. 

“ Sa-ay,” drawled Jerry, when he came up to the 
little group, “ what d ’ye want done with this here 
greaser that fired on Jack? Some of the fellers over 
there wanted to take him out and hang him, but I 
kinda hated to draw attention away from Jack’s 
p’formance — which was right interesting. Bill Wil- 
son, he reckoned I better fetch him over here and ask 
you fellers about it; Bill says this mob of greasers 
might make a fuss if the agony ’s piled on too thick, 
but whatever you say will be did.” With his unoccu- 
pied hand he helped himself to a generous chew of to- 
bacco, and spat gravely into the dust. 


FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL 327 

“ Fer as I ’m concerned,” he drawled lazily, “ I ’m 
willin’ to help string him up. He done as dirty a trick 
as ever I seen, and he done it deliberate. I had m’ eye 
peeled fer him all the time, and I seen he was n’t goin’ 
to stand back and let Jack git the best of that greaser 
if he could help it. He was cunnin’ — but shucks ! I 
see all along why he kept that gun p’inted out front — ” 

“ Turn him loose,” said Dade suddenly, interrupt- 
ing him. “ We don’t want to start any trouble, Jerry. 
He may need hanging, but we can’t afford to give him 
what he deserves. It ’s a ticklish crowd, right now ; 
they ’ve lost a lot on the duel, and they ’ve drunk enough 
wine to swim a mule. Turn him loose. I mean it,” he 
added, when he caught the incipient rebellion in J erry’s 
weather-beaten face. “ I ’m bossing things here to-day. 
He did n’t hit anybody, and I ’m beginning to think we 
can get through the day without any real trouble, if 
we go easy.” 

“ Wa-al — ” Jerry scratched his stubbly jaw reflec- 
tively with his free hand, and looked down at his cap- 
tive. “ I ’ll give him a derned good wallopin’, then, 
just to learn him manners. I ’ve been wantin’ to lick 
him since yesterday mornin’ when he tried to drive off 
Bawley and Lay-fayette and William Penn. I lost two 
hours off’n my work, argyin’ with him. I ’ll take that 
outa his hide, right now.” 


328 


THE GRINGOS 


He induced Moll to turn around, and led Manuel 
away from the presence of the women lest they should 
be shocked at his deed; and on the cool side of the 
farthest shed he did indeed give Manuel a “ derned 
good walloping.” After which he took a fresh chew of 
tobacco, lounged over to where Moll waited and 
switched desultorily at the flies, mounted, and went 
placidly home to his Mary. 

* ****** 

Bill Wilson, having collected their winnings and his 
own, sought Dade and Jack, where they were lying 
under the shade of a sycamore just beyond the rim of 
the crowd chattering shrilly of the later events. With 
a grunt of relief to be rid of the buzzing, Bill flung 
himself down beside them and plucked a cigar from an 
inner pocket. 

“ Say,” he began, after he had bitten off the end of 
the cigar and had moistened the whole with his tongue. 
“ Them greasers sure do hate to come forward with 
their losings ! Some bets I never will be able to collect ; 
but I got a lot — enough to pay for the trouble of 
coming down.” He rolled over upon his back and lay 
smoking and looking up into the mottled branches of 
the tree; thought of something, and lifted himself to 
an elbow so that he faced Jack. 


FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL 329 

“ Sa-ay, I thought you said you was going to kill 
that greaser,” he challenged quizzically. 

J ack shrugged his shoulders, took two long draws on 
his cigarette, and blew one of his pet smoke-rings. “ I 
did.” He moistened his lips and blew another ring. 
“ At least, I killed the biggest part of him — and that ’s 
his pride.” 

Bill grunted, lay down again, and stared up at the 
wide-pronged sycamore leaves. “ Darn my oldest sis- 
ter’s cat’s eyes if I ever seen anything like it ! ” he 
exploded suddenly, and closed his eyes in a vast content. 

From the barbecue pits there came an appetizing odor 
of roasting beef ; high-keyed voices flung good-humored 
taunts, and once they heard a great shout of laughter 
surge through the crowd gathered there. From the great 
platform built under a group of live oaks near the patio 
they heard the resonant plunk-plunk-plunk of a harp 
making ready for the dance, and the shrill laughter of 
slim senoritas hovering there. Down the slope before 
the three the shadows stretched longer and longer. A 
violin twanged in the tuning, the harp-strings crooning 
the key. 

“ You fellows are going to dance, ain’t yuh ? ” Bill 
inquired lazily, when his cigar was half gone to ashes 
and smoke. “ Jack, here, can get pardners enough to 
keep him going fer a week — judging by the eyes them 


330 


THE GRINGOS 


Spanish girls have been making at him since the duel 
and the horse-breaking. 

“ Say ! How about that sassy-eyed Picardo girl ? 
I ain’t seen you and her in speaking distance all day; 
and the way you was buzzing around her when I was 
down here before — ” 

“ Say, J ack,” Dade interrupted, diplomacy winning 
against politeness, “ I never dreamed you ’d have the 
nerve to try that fancy corkscrew throw of yours before 
all that crowd. Why, after two years to get out of 
practice, you took an awful chance of making a fool 
of yourself ! Y’ see, Bill,” he explained with a de- 
liberate garrulity, “ that throw he made when he caught 
the horse was the finest bit of rope-work that ’s been 
done to-day. I don’t believe there ’s another man in 
the crowd that could do it; and the chances are they 
never saw it done before, even! I know I never saw 
but one man beside Jack that could do it. Jack was 
always at it, when we happened to be laying around 
with nothing to do, and I know he had to keep his 
hand in, or he ’d make a fizzle of it. Of course,” he 
conceded, “you didn’t miss — but if you had — 
Wow ! ” He shook his head at the bare possibility. 

Jack grinned at him. “ I ’m not saying how much 
moonlight I used up, practicing out in the orchard 
when everybody else was asleep. I reckon I ’ve made 


FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL 331 

that corkscrew five thousand times in the last three 
•weeks ! ” 

“ Where you belong/’ bantered Dade, “is on the 
stage. You do love to create a sensation, better than 
any one I ever — ” 

“ Senors — ” Diego came hurriedly out of the 
shadows behind them. “ The patron begs that you will 
honor his table by dining with him to-night. In one 
little half-hour will he hope to see you; and Don Jose 
Pacheco will also be happy to meet the senors, if it is 
the pleasure of the senors to meet him and dine in his 
company. The patron,” added Diego, with the faintest 
suspicion of a twinkle in his pensive black eyes, “ de- 
sires also that I shall extend to you the deep regret 
of the senora and the senorita because it will be im- 
possible for them to be present.” 

The three looked at one another, and in Bill’s eyes 
dawned slowly the light of understanding. 

“ Tell the patron we are honored by the invitation, 
and that it gives us much pleasure to accept,” Dade 
replied for the three of them, after a moment spent in 
swift, mental measuring of the situation. “ Jack, 
you ’ve got to get them bloody clothes off, and some 
decent ones on. Come on, Bill ; half an hour ain’t any 
too much time to get ready in.” 

Half-way to the house they walked without saying 


332 THE GRINGOS 

a word. Then Dade, walking between the two, sud- 
denly clapped a hand down upon the shoulder of each. 

“ Say, I could holler my head off ! ” he exulted. 
“ I ’m going to quit worrying about anything, after 
this ; the nights I ’ve laid awake and worried myself 
purple over this darned fiesta — or the duel, rather! 
And things are turning out smooth as a man could ask. 

“ Jack, I ’m proud to death of you, and that ’s a 
fact. With that temper of yours, I kinda looked for 
you to get this whole outfit down on you; but the 
way you acted, I don’t believe there ’s a man here, ex- 
cept Manuel, that’s got any real grudge against you, 
even if they did lose a lot of money on the fight. And 
it ’s all the way you behaved, old boy — like a prince ! 
J ust — like a — blamed prince ! ” 

“ Oh, I don’t know — Jose acted pretty white, him- 
self. You ’ve got to admit that it ’s Jose that took the 
fight out of the crowd. I ’m glad — ” He did not 
finish the sentence, and they were considerate enough 
not to insist that he should. 

* ****** 

Warm sunlight, and bonfires fallen to cheerless, 
charred embers and ashes gone gray; warm sunlight, 
and eyes grown heavy with the weariness of surfeited 
pleasure. Bullock carts creaked again, their squealing 
growing gradually fainter as the fat-jowled senoras 


FOR LOVE AND A MEDAL 333 

lurched home to the monotony of life, while the seno- 
ritas drowsed and dreamed, and smiled in their dream- 
ing. 

At the corrals, red-lidded caballeros cursed irritably 
the horses they saddled. In the patio Don Andres 
gave dignified adieu to the guests that still lingered. 
The harp was shrouded and dumb upon the platform, 
the oaken floor polished and dark with the night-long 
slide of slippered feet. The fiesta was slipping out 
of the present into the past, where it would live still 
under the rose-lights of memory. 

There was a scurry of little feet in the rose-garden. 
A door slammed somewhere and hushed the sound of 
sobbing. A senorita — a young and lovely senorita 
who had all her life been given her way — fled to her 
room in a great rage, because for once her smiles had 
not thawed the ice which her anger had frozen. 

The senorita flung something upon the floor and 
trampled it with her little slipper-heels ; a rose, blood- 
red and withered, yet heavy with perfume still ; a rose, 
twin to the one upon which the black horse of Jose had 
set his foot in the arena. A note she tore in little 
bits, with fingers that tingled still from the slap she 
had given to Diego, who had brought it. She flung the 
fragments from her, and the writing was fine and fem- 
inine in every curve — her own, if you wish to know ; 


334 


THE GRINGOS 


the note she had sent, twenty-four hours before, to her 
blue-eyed one whom she had decided to forgive. 

“ Santa Maria ! ” she gasped, and gritted her teeth 
afterwards. “ This, then, is what he meant — that 
insolent one ! ‘ After the fiesta will I send the answer ’ 
— so he told that simpering maid who took my letter 
and the rose. And the answer, then, is my rose and 
my letter returned, and no word else. Madre de 
Dios! That he should flout me thus! Now will I 
tell Jose to kill him — and kill him quickly. For that 
blue-eyed gringo I hate ! ” Then she flung herself 
across her bed and wept. 

Let the tender-hearted be reassured. The senorita 
slid from sobbing into slumber, and her dreams were 
pleasant, so that she woke smiling. That night she 
sang a love-song to J ose, behind the passion vines ; and 
her eyes were soft; and when young Don Jose pulled 
her fingers from the guitar strings and kissed them 
many times, her only rebuke was such a pursing of 
lips that they were kissed also for their mutiny. 

After awhile the senorita sang again, while Jose, 
his neck held a little to one side because of his hurt, 
watched her worshipfully, and forgot how much he had 
suffered because of her. She was seventeen, you see, 
and she was lovely to look upon ; and as for a heart — 
perhaps she would develop one later. 


CHAPTER XXV 


ADIOS 

T HE sun was sliding past the zenith when Jack 
yawned himself awake. He lay frowning at the 
ceiling as if he were trying to remember something, 
sat up when recollection came, and discovered that Dade 
was already up and getting into his jacket. 

“ Dade, let ’s go back to the mine,” he suggested 
abruptly, reaching for his hoots. “ You are n’t crazy 
about this job here, are you ? I know you did n’t want 
to take it, at first.” 

“ And I know you bullied me into it,” Dade retorted, 
with some acrimony. He had danced until his feet 
burned with fatigue, and there was the reaction from 
a month of worry to roughen his mood. Also, he had 
yet to digest the amazing fact that the sight of Teresita 
had not hurt him so very much — not one quarter as 
much as he had expected it would do. How, here was 
Jack proposing to leave, just when staying would he 
rather agreeable ! 

“ Well — but times have changed, since then. I ? m 


336 


THE GRINGOS 


ready to go.” Jack pulled on a boot and stamped bis 
foot snugly into it. “ What ’s more, I ’m going ! ” 

“ You ’ll eat, first, won’t you ? ” 

Jack passed over the sarcasm. “ No, sir, I won’t. 
I ’m not going to swallow another mouthful on this 
ranch. I held myself down till that damned fiesta was 
over, because I did n’t want folks to say I was scared 
off. But now — I’m going, just as quick as the Lord ’ll 
let me get a saddle on that yellow mustang.” 

“ Why, you — ” 

“Why, I nothing! I’m going. If you want to go 
along, you can; but I won’t drag you off by the heels. 
You can suit yourself.” He stamped himself into the 
other boot, went over and splashed cold water into his 
eyes and upon his head, shook off the drops that clung 
to his hair, made a few violent passes with towel and 
brush, and reached for his sombrero. 

“ It ’s a long ways to ride on an empty stomach,” 
Dade reminded him dryly. 

“We can stop at Jerry Simpson’s and eat. That 
w r on’t be more than a mile or so out of the way.” Jack’s 
hand was on the latch. 

“ And that yellow horse ain’t what you can call trail- 
broke.” 

“ He will be, by the time I get to the mine ! ” 

Dade threw out both hands in surrender. “ Oh, 


ADIOS 337 

well — yon darned donkey, give me time to tell Don 
Andres good-by, anyway.” 

Jack’s eyes lighted with the smile Dade knew and 
loved to see. “ Dade, they don’t make ’em any better 
than you,” he cried, and left the door to try and break 
a shoulder-blade with the flat of his hand, just to show 
his appreciation of such friendship. “ Bill Wilson has 
got enough gold that he pulled out of the crowd for us 
yesterday to grub-stake us for a good long while, and 
— I can’t get out of this valley a minute too soon to 
suit me,” he confessed. “ You go on and hunt up Don 
Andres, while I tackle Solano. I ’ll wait for you — ■ 
but don’t ask me to stay till after dinner, because I 
won’t do it. 

“ We don’t want to go off without saying good-by to 
Jerry and his wife, anyway ; and we ’ll beg a meal 
from the old Turk, and listen to some more yarns about 
Tige, just to show we ’re friendly. I ’ll have Surry 
saddled, so all you ’ve got to do is make your talk to 
the don and pack your socks.” 

Dade grinned and followed him outside. “ Good 
thing I ’m used to you,” he commented grimly, “ or 
my head would be whirling, right now.” Not a word, 
you will observe, as to whether his own interests would 
be furthered by this sudden departure; but that was 
Dade’s way. Not a word about the sudden change 


338 


THE GRINGOS 


from last evening, when Jack had eaten at Don Andres’ 
table and had talked amiably with Jose — amiably in 
spite of the fact that every one of them understood per- 
fectly that the amiability was but the flowers of courtesy 
strewn over a formal — and perhaps a temporary — 
truce. But Jose was not a fixture upon the ranch, and 
the don’s friendship for the two seemed unchanged. 

Dade did not argue nor did he question. Barring 
details, he thought he understood why it was that Jack 
wanted to go — why it was impossible for him to stay. 
A girl may be only seventeen and as irresponsible as a 
kitten, but for all that she may play an important part 
in the making and the marring of a man’s most practical 
plans. 

When he returned from the house, Don Andres 
walked beside him. The two of them reached the cor- 
ral just as Jack released Solano’s foot from the raw- 
hide loop that had held it high while Jack cinched the 
saddle in place. When Jack saw them he came for- 
ward, wiping from his face the beads of perspiration 
which the tussle had brought there. 

“ Senor Hunter tells me that you are going away,” 
Don Andres began almost at once. “ That you are act- 
ing wisely I am truly convinced, Senor Allen, though 
it irks me to say that it is so. For a little time would 
all be well, perchance ; for as long as your generosity 


ADIOS 


339 


fills the heart of Jose with gratitude, so that no ill will 
finds room there. But his temper is hot and hasty, as 
is yours ; and with other considerations which one must 
face — ” He held out his hand for farewell. 

“ Adios, Senor. I am indeed sorry that you must 
leave us,” he said simply. “ Under other circumstance 
I should urge you to remain; but my lips are sealed, 
as you well know. Adios, amigo mio. I have liked 
thee well.” He gripped Jack’s hand warmly, and 
turned away. Dade he gave a final handclasp, and 
walked slowly back to the house, his proud old head 
bowed upon his chest. 

Valencia, yawning prodigiously, came forth from the 
vaqueros’ hut and glimpsed them just as Jack was bring- 
ing Solano to something like decent behavior before 
they started down the slope. 

“Dios!” cried Valencia, and ran to see what was 
taking place. For while the taming of a mustang is 
something which a man may undertake whenever the 
mood of him impels, the somewhat bulky packages tied 
behind the high cantles could mean nothing save a 
journey. 

When they told him, he expostulated with tears in 
his eyes. He had been nursing since yesterday a secret 
hope that the blue-eyed one would teach him that won- 
derful trick of making a riata climb upward of its 


340 THE GRINGOS 

own accord as if it were a live thing. Beyond that he 
was genuinely distressed to see them go, and even threat- 
ened to go with them before he yielded finally to the 
inevitable — remembering Felice, perhaps, and the 
emptiness of life without her. 

“ Senor, should you chance to see that great hombre 
who whipped Manuel so completely, you would do well 
to give the warning. Me, I heard from Konaldo last 
night that Manuel spoke many threats against that 
gringo who had beaten him. Carlos also — and I think 
they mean ill towards the Senor Seem’son. Me, I 
thought to ride that way to-morrow and give the word 
of warning.” 

“We’re going there now,” said Jack, with some 
difficulty holding the yellow horse quiet, while he shook 
hands with Valencia. “ Adios, Valencia. If you ever 
come near our mine, remember that what we have will 
be yours also.” 

“ Gracias, gracias — adios — ” He stood staring 
regretfully after them when they started erratically 
down the slope; erratically, because Solano preferred 
going backward or sidewise, or straight up and down, 
to going forward. They were not two hundred yards 
away from the stable when Valencia overtook them, 
having saddled in haste that he might ride with them 
for a way. 


ADIOS 


341 


“ That caballo, he needs two to show him the way, 
Senors,” grinned Valencia, to explain his coming. 
“ Me, I shall help to get him started, and we will say 
adios farther up the valley, unless the senors desire to 
ride to Senor Seem’son’s cabin.” 

“ That ’s where we ’re headed for, believe it or not ! ” 
laughed Jack, who at that moment was going round 
and round in a circle. “ When he gets so dizzy he can’t 
tell up from down, maybe he ’ll do as I say about going 
straight ahead.” 

Eventually Solano did decide to move forward; and 
he did so at such a pace that speedily they reached 
Jerry’s claim and galloped furiously up the slope to 
the cabin. 

“ Must be asleep,” Dade remarked carelessly, when 
they faced a quiet, straight-hanging bullock hide. 

But when a loud hallo brought no sign, even from 
Tige, he jumped off and went to investigate the silence. 

“ There ain’t a single soul here,” he announced, “ and 
that’s funny, too. They always leave Tige to watch 
the place, you know — or they did before I went on 
rodeo.” 

“ They do yet,” said Jack. “ Only Mrs. Jerry never 
goes anywhere. She stays at home to watch their gar- 
den. That ’s it, over there; her ‘ truck patch,’ she calls 
it.” 


342 THE GRINGOS 

“ Things are all upset here. Get off, J ack, and 
let ’s see what ’s up. I don’t like the looks of things, 
myself.” Dade’s face was growing sober. 

Valencia, on the ground, was helping Jack with 
Solano. But he turned suddenly and cast an uneasy 
glance towards the quiet log hut. 

“ Sehors, for these two who live here I am afraid ! 
It is as I told you; that Manuel was speaking threats 
against the big senor, last night; and he had drunk 
much wine, so that he walked not steady. And with 
Carlos and perhaps one or two others — of that I am 
not sure — he rode away soon after dark. Dolt, that 
I did not tell thee at the time! But I was dancing 
much,” he confessed, “ and the fiesta dance makes 
drunken the feet, that they must dance — ” 

“ Well, tie up that mustang and never mind.” Dade 
was walking aimlessly about, looking for something — 
what, he did not know. “ There ’s tracks all around, 
and — ” he disappeared behind the cabin. 

In a minute he was calling them, and his tone brought 
them on the run. “ How, what do you make of that ? ” 
he wanted to know, and pointed. 

Two fresh mounds of earth, narrow, long — graves, 
if size and shape meant anything at all. The form of 
a “ T ” they made there in the grass ; for one was short 
and extended across, near one end of the larger one. 


ADIOS 343 

“ What do you make of that ? ” Dade repeated, much 
lower than before. 

“ Senors, evil has been done here. Me, I think — ” 

“ Don’t think ! Bring that shovel, over there — see 
it, by the tree ? — and dig. There ? s one way to find 
out what it means.” 

Valencia did not want to dig into those mounds, hut 
the voice was that of his majordomo, whom he had for 
a month obeyed implicitly. He got the shovel and he 
dug. And since it seemed too bad to make him do all 
the work, Jack and Dade each took their turn in 
opening the grave. 

And in that grave they found Mrs. Jerry, wrapped 
in her faded patchwork quilt, her hands folded at peace, 
her wistful brown eyes closed softly — There was no 
need to speculate long upon the cause of her death. Her 
shapeless brown dress was stained dark from throat to 
-waist. Dade, shuddering a little, very gently lifted 
the hands that were folded ; beneath was the hole where 
the bullet had struck. 

“ Dios ! ” said Valencia, in a whisper. 

They were three white-faced young men who stood 
there, abashed before the tragedy they had uncovered. 
After a little, they filled the grave again and stood 
back, trying to think the thing out and to think it out 
calmly. They drew away from the spot, Dade leading. 


344 


THE GRINGOS 


“ We don’t need to open the other one,” he said. 
“ That holds Tige, of course. I wonder — ” 

“ Let’s look around out there in the bushes,” Jack 
suggested. “ I can see how the thing must have hap- 
pened ; somebody came and started shooting — and that 
rifle he called Jemina, and the two pistols — don’t you 
reckon they did some good for themselves 3 ” 

“ Probably — if Jerry was here.” 

“ Man, he must have been here ! Who else — ” he 
tilted his head towards the graves. Surely, no one hut 
Jerry would have buried them so, with Tige lying at 
the feet of his mistress. And, as Jack presently pointed 
out, if the shooting had taken place in Jerry’s absence, 
he would certainly have notified them at the ranch. 
And Jack had a swift mental picture of Jerry galloping 
furiously up to the patio on one of his mules, brandish- 
ing his rifle, while he shouted to all around him the 
news of this terrible, unbelievable thing that had be- 
fallen him. 

They did not search long before they found plenty 
of evidence that Jerry had been there at the time of 
the trouble. They found Manuel lying on his back, 
with his beard clotted and stained red, and his black 
eyes staring dully at the sky. Farther along they came 
upon Carlos, lying upon his face, with a blood-stained 
trail behind him in the grass to show how far he had 


ADIOS 345 

crawled before death overtook him. But they did not 
find Jerry, look where they would. 

In the cabin, where they finally went to search sys- 
tematically for clews, they found places where the logs 
had been splintered near the loopholes with bullets from 
without. A siege it had been, then. 

Jack, more familiar with the interior than either 
of the others because of his frequent visits there with 
Teresita, missed certain articles; the frying pan, an 
iron pot, a few dishes, and the bedding, to be exact. 

So, finally, they decided that Jerry, having had the 
worst befall him, had buried his dead, packed a few 
necessary things upon one of the mules, mounted the 
other, and had gone — where? There was no telling 
where, in that big land. Somewhere into the wilder- 
ness, they guessed, where he could be alone with the 
deadly hurt Fate and his enemies had given him. 

The oxen, when they went outside, came shambling 
up the slope to the oak tree where they were wont to 
spend the night near the prairie schooner that had been 
their homing place for many a month. But without a 
doubt the mules were gone; otherwise, Jack insisted, 
they would be near the oxen, as was their gregarious 
habit. 

“ Jerry ? s gone — pulled out,” J ack asserted for the 
third or fourth time. “ And the mules, and — the pup. 


346 THE GRINGOS 

Where ’s Chico ? I have n’t seen or heard anything of 
him ; have you ? ” 

They had not; and they immediately began calling 
and looking for Chico, who was at that stage of puppy- 
hood that insists upon getting in front of one and then 
falling down and lying, paws in the air, waiting to be 
picked up and petted. But Chico did not come lum- 
bering up like an animated black muff, and they could 
not find his little, dead body. 

It occurred to Dade that he might be buried with 
Tige; and, once the idea was presented to Jack, he 
could not content himself to leave the place until he 
knew to a certainty. He would never have admitted 
it, but there were certain sweet memories which made 
that particular pup not at all like other black pups. 
He got the shovel, and he dug in the little grave until 
he was certain that Tige lay there, and that he was 
alone. 

“Well, he’s taken the pup along, then; and that 
proves to me that Jerry was n’t crazy, or anything like 
that. He ’s just pulled out, because he could n’t stand 
it around here any longer — and I don’t blame him. 
But I wish I knew where ; we ’d take him up to the 
mine with us ; huh ? ” 

“Yes — but we ’re about fourteen hours too late 
to find out where he went. If I’m any judge, these 


ADIOS 


347 


bodies have been dead that long. And if we found him, 
the chances are he would n’t go. If I ’m any good at 
guessing poor Jerry’s state of mind, right now, he 
don’t want to see or speak to any human being on 
earth.” 

“ I guess you ’re right,” J ack assented, after a medi- 
tative pause. “ He just worshiped that poor little 
woman.” 

Beyond that, neither of them attempted to put into 
speech the tragedy; it was beyond the poor words we 
have thus far coined for our needs, like many another 
thing that happens in these lives we live. They waited 
a little while longer, wondering what they could or 
should do. 

Mrs. Jerry lay easily where she had been placed by 
the man who loved her. The killers had been killed 
by the same hand that laid her deep, in her faded, 
patchwork quilt. There seemed nothing further to be 
done. 

But Valencia, when he had ridden a thoughtful half- 
mile, did think of something. 

“ Me, I shall give ten pesos of the gold I won yes- 
terday upon the duelo,” he said, glancing back at the 
grim little cabin, “ that mass may be said for the re- 
pose of the Senora Seem’son’s soul. For thus will sleep 
come easier to me, Senors, And you ? ” 


348 


THE GRINGOS 


“ I think, Valencia, if I were going to say any 
prayers, they ’d be said for J erry,” Dade told him. 
“ He needs ’em worse than she does.” 

“ Oh, come on, Dade ; let ? s be getting out of this 
valley ! ” J ack urged irritably. “ And I hope,” he 
added, “ I ’ll never see the place again ! ” 

“ But, Senor! ” Valencia rode alongside to protest al- 
most tearfully, “ The valley, it is not to be blame. Saw 
you ever a sweeter land than this ? ” He flung his 
arm outward to include the whole beautiful expanse 
of it. “ The valley, it is glorious ! Am I not right ? 
Blame not the beautiful land, Senor, for the trouble 
that has come; for trouble will find a man out, though 
he climb the loneliest mountain peak and hide himself 
among the rocks there ! And the valley — Senors, the 
valley will hold friends that are true to thee.” 

J ack flushed at the reproach ; flushed and owned him- 
self wrong. “ I ’ll remember the friends,” he said. 
“ And I ’ll forget the things that hurt ; I ’m a selfish 
brute — whee-ee ! I should say ! ” He pulled up as 
short as Solano would let him, and stared from Dade 
to Valencia with guilty eyes. 

“ Diego — I forgot that Injun, Dade; and next to 
you, I believe he ? s the best friend I ? ve got on earth ! 
I was so wrapped up in my own bruises that I clean 
overlooked something that I ought to be mighty grate* 


ADIOS 


349 


ful for. Dade, do you think he ’d like to go along to 
the mine ? You know his wife died a few months ago, 
and he ’s kind of alone ; do you think he ’d go ? ” 

“ I think the chance to go would look like a ticket 
to glory,” Dade assured him sententiously. 

Whereupon Jack dismounted, that he might write 
a few lines as he had written the note to Bill Wilson, 
a couple of months before : with a leaf from his memo- 
randum book and a bullet for pencil. 

u Give that to Don Andres, will you, Valencia ? It ’s 
to ask how much is Diego’s debt, and to say that I ’ll 
pay it if the peon wants to come with me. We ’ll wait 
in town until we hear; perhaps Don Andres will let 
you come up with Diego — that is, if Diego wants to 
come. You ask him, Valencia.” 

“ He will come, Senor ; nothing would give him 
greater joy. And,” he added wishfully, “ but for my 
sweetheart, Senors, I would ask that I might come with 
you also ! ” 

“ You stick to your sweetheart, Valencia — if she’s 
true,” Jack advised him somberly. “ How, Dade, I 
guess we ’re ready for the long ride to supper. Why 
don’t you kick me for being such a selfish cuss ? ” 

“ Maybe because I ’m used to you,” Dade’s lips 
quirked humorously after the retort. “ You ’re just 
Jack — and you couldn’t be any different, I reckon, 


350 THE GRINGOS 

if you tried. Well, come along, then. Adios, 
V alencia.” 

Once more they shook hands solemnly with the 
vaquero, who had no smile for the parting. 

“ Adios, adios,” Valencia called lingeringly after 
them, and held his horse quiet that he might gaze after 
them until a willow bend hid them finally from his 


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